Insights .... Things I See

My Blog has Moved

2008-08-22T23:14:00.001+10:00

Hi there... I have upgraded my blogging system and have moved my blog to a new server.

You can now find it at www.lordisms.com.

See you there.

Another moment in the sun!

2008-08-08T16:52:00.001+10:00

Another one of my little 'vanity posts' (which seem to get both readers to comment) but I am pleased to announce that Hyro are WINNERS of a national Microsoft
Partner of the Year Award for 2008. This award is for ISV Solutions Partner – Software Solutions Innovation and recognises some great work by the team in building the ABC Shop Online using the Microsoft Programmable Rich Media platform, Silverlight™.

It's an OUTSTANDING effort in a very competitive field.

And thanks for the support and help in driving this innovation from our friends at Microsoft – Michael Kordahi, Nick Mayhew and Christian Longstaff for their support and encouragement as we have embraced the Silverlight™ phenomenon.

A trillion things being said…

2008-07-28T22:31:00.001+10:00

As a follow up to yesterday's blog, I was reading the Official Google Blog and was presented with this daunting statistic:

There are 1,000,000,000,000 (1 Trillion) Unique URLs on the internet – and it is growing at "several billion pages a day."

This is a phenomenal statistic – and if ever any marketer or other business person was ever looking for final reinforcement of the fact that this internet thing might be here to stay then this has to be it (trust me, I still get to talk to marketers who STILL perceive digital marketing to be a sideshow in their marketing plans!!). Once you step back from this massive global endeavour we are all a part of, you then get some insight into just what it is going to take to be successful in this digital world in which we live.

A trillion pages represent billions of sites, which in turn represent many, many millions of businesses – all competing for attention, for engagement and for business. Every single one of these wants to be the first result returned on a search, be listed on the first page of paid links and wants to have the hottest viral marketing campaign. Everyone wants to be number one.

In digital business terms, this represents both an opportunity and a threat. For big brands with big markets, the sheer size of the internet raises the bar for your digital strategies. All of the things I have been raving about over the last couple of years in this blog hold true – you need to invest adequately in everything to do with your digital strategy. Fail to invest to the right level on any component and your strategy is likely to be swamped by the competition. Inadequate technology will drive users to faster, better performing sites. Poor user experience and information architecture will frustrate users and send them to easier use competitive sites. Get your online marketing wrong and you just won't be heard… and so on. This is a strong sign that digital business is now the domain of specialist, expert companies.

The opportunities come from the sheer scale of the market – in any market this big there are clearly opportunities for well considered, well targeted offers. For businesses both big and small, there is great commercial potential in extending, marketing or modifying your offers to suit very specific markets which may now be spread anywhere around the world.

I also saw a very interesting and somewhat unique take on this from Julian Bajkowski in the MIS Magazine Online Edition. His take was to confront some of the other implications of such a massive and growing web – like maybe ending up with more destinations on the web than there are addresses to refer to them. Another sign of just how big the internet has become.

Having been in this industry for as long as it has been around in this country, statistics like this give me pause. We have REALLY created something which HAS changed the world … and as far as I am concerned, we have really only just begun.

20% of the world is online … and China > US!

2008-07-27T20:22:00.004+10:00

This week saw an article stating that the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) has released statistics showing that the total number of internet users in China is now 253,000,000 and now well and truly surpass the number of internet users in the US (215,000,000 as at the end of November 2007). This follows six months of remarkable growth, from about 210,000,000 at the end of 2007 according to InternetWorldStats.com.

As you pore over the statistics, you start to get a sense of the true scale of the internet. So here are some things which stuck with me…

The number of internet users in China compares to the population of the US (around 305,000,000), and at the current rate of growth (56% per annum) will likely surpass it before Christmas this year.
Each of the number of users in China and the US now represent around 15% of the total world population of Internet Users of 1,412,000,000
More than 20% of the world's population of 6,707,000,000 is now online
Asia has the second lowest population penetration (14%) of the internet (after Africa) but represents the largest share of internet users. The US has internet penetration of 71% and 76% for Australia.
China's internet population is now 16 times that of Australia (15.5 million)
The http://www.news.com.au/
article suggests that by 2012, the China internet population will probably reach 490,000,000 – even if we reach 20 million in Australia, they will outnumber us by 25 to 1. There are more than 530,000,000 internet users across Asia today.

There is much to be drawn from these statistics and I will devote more space to this in the future. My first observation is that while it is obvious that the internet is a truly global phenomenon, it is increasingly an Asia-centric one.

Look Behind the Noise to See What’s Going on ….

2008-07-13T20:06:00.001+10:00

The launch of the Apple iPhone 3G is occupying a lot of media column space over the last week, and it probably should. Others can write about the technology – for me the significant impact we will see is the how it changes consumers' understanding of the capability of the internet and now the mobile internet. While the ability to browse, email, collaborate and connect via our mobile phone has been something us nerds (even us closet nerds) have been doing for a few years, the 3G iPhone puts it in front of and in the hand of the masses.

There is evidence that the iPhone is dramatically affecting the way the users are connecting. This article, for example, quotes Google as saying that the mobile searches from the iPhone run at 50 TIMES those from other mobile handsets – and that is the 'old' iPhone without the benefit of 3G connectivity and the MUCH faster data rates this affords.

I am also pleased to see that Australian businesses have been fast to offer iPhone optimised content. These purpose built mobile sites offer special purpose interfaces (designed to accommodate touch-screen navigation) and other iPhone features such as "shrink and zoom" of interfaces and making use of the inbuilt GPS functionality. Good examples can be found being delivered by News Corporation and Commsec – but there are plenty out there and we have been proudly building some of these.

The Future of Mobiles …

2008-07-08T08:37:00.001+10:00

I promised to both readers that when it was made available, I would share the link to the presentation I made at the 2008 Rainmaker Marketing Symposium in Sydney. This presentation was delivered to around 120 marketers from the A/NZ financial services industry and the feedback was reasonably positive.

These are, of course, my observations and insights from my position in a company delivering major new initiatives in the mobile space and I am sure there are those who both agree and disagree with my thoughts ….. enjoy.

Mish Mash and They’re Making a Splash….

2008-06-29T20:59:00.001+10:00

A new challenge for marketers is the rise of mashups – technology which allows users to aggregate their own collection of content and services from a range of different sources to create a unique, personalised internet environment.

The thinking behind this technology is not new. Over a decade ago, internet pioneer Sun Microsystems were marketing a technology called iPlanet Portal Server, a derivative of the earlier Netscape Compass Server brought to market through the Sun / Netscape Iplanet Alliance. This technology created a framework to aggregate a range of content, applications and services across an enterprise and to then present those services through a flexible, customisable interface. This was achieved by creating some common application frameworks and a mechanisms to connect to many systems located anywhere on the enterprise network. This technology slowly evolved to the internet portals (usually prefaced with the term 'my' – remember www.mynetscape.com?), albeit that the content available through those portals was limited to content authored for inclusion by the portal provider.

Fast forward to today and this technology has expanded from across the enterprise to across the internet. Today, mashup technologies allow us to connect content and services from just about anywhere on the internet. The most well known of these technologies come in the form of 'community sites' like Facebook, Myspace and Bebo. These sites allow users to add applications and content to their own profile and to share these with their peers, or social network. The interoperability extends to anything on the internet which complies with the relevant internet standards for the content types. Technologies such as AJAX, RSS, XML and others provide flexibility and interoperability and the platform for services to be aggregated.

A new generation of mashups is targeting the convenience and customisability drivers for users. Positioned as a personalised home page (not unlike the old portals) services such as www.myyahoo.com, www.igoogle.com and even the Microsoft Live Services are vying for the crown of being the default gateway for your internet activities.

With the high levels of functionality the combinations of these services and the content and services available to be accessed, there are new challenges for marketers. In social networking sites, content and services are distributed by reference. Visitors to my home page who like an object they see there can add it to their site with a click (or two). A user may get exposed to a product or service without ever visiting the web site of the producer or seeing any other content.

Marketers need to think about how they are going to manage the messaging to their target audiences when they don't have control over the frameworks through which their content and services are being delivered. Furthermore, it is likely that the content produced will sit with competing content from rival marketers. Brand A may well be situated right next to competing Brand B as users change and update their mashups.

The trick is going to be to make sure that the content and services developed for distribution through mashups and community sites stands up in its own right; that it communicates the brand, message and proposition independently. There is a lot of merit in including a mashup component in digital marketing. Since the user has control of their mashup framework, the inclusion of an object in a users page is tantamount endorsement and we know that peer reference and endorsement are powerful marketing tools. A well distributed mashup object can be a powerful marketing tool.

It’s Like a Blog, Only Smaller!

2008-06-11T21:51:00.001+10:00

Over the last two or three weeks, I have been investigating the phenomena of micro-blogging – the concept of using digital technologies (web, email, sms, mobile) to post regular, small insights about what you are doing / seeing / thinking / feeling. I have tried a couple of sites; Twitter and Plurk and am finding strengths and weaknesses in both.

I am interested to see where this goes. My first experience is that there are some people who are phenomenally prolific in their digital postings. Some people post tens or hundreds of things per day. The second thing I notice is that much of what is posted by these people is pretty inane. Spur of the moment ramblings which often lack the benefit of supporting information and context. Perhaps this is a sign of the nascent nature of this activity – some of these people clearly feel that if they have nothings to post, then they should post, well, nothing. I also feel that some of this is driven by massive egos in a micro sense – these people WANT celebrity, but only from a circle of friends and perhaps their friends. Maybe posting constantly will help them to achieve this….

On the other hand, there seems to be a pervasive sense of community in all of this. There are lots of people who "touch" each other many times a day, maybe a bit like the chatter that happens amongst families; the regular comments, observations, snappy remarks, and banter which goes on amongst the familiar. I have already seen many instances of members of these communities reaching out for information, opinions and help – and the community responds quickly. This is a good thing, it happens in the background and takes very little time to check, comment, or post. As we all move around quickly (and for some of us, widely), this can be a nice "touchpoint" for our friends and colleagues.

I think that this is another of those emerging trends which we will see find its way into the corporate environment. I can foresee teams, irrespective of their locations, engaging with their peers using this sort of micro-blogging constantly throughout the day. Many teams are doing this already through chat clients, but micro-blogging offers the benefit of creating a permanent record and all the functionality of the web (linking, syndicating, programmability and so on).

The current iterations of the technology are a bit klutzy, but like most things on the web, these move fast and the latest release offer some cool features. You can update via email, chat clients, and SMS and there are emerging services which will syndicate your postings to all your personal and social sites (check out ping.fm as an example). I think this an emerging technology trend worth keeping an eye on.

Presentation today – Mobile Marketing for Financial Services

2008-06-04T18:35:00.001+10:00

I had the pleasure of presenting today to the 14^th Annual Rainmaker Marketing Symposium for Financial Services. My topic was the Evolving trends in Mobile Marketing, a topic I enjoy and was happy to get all fired up about. Feedback from the crowd was great and I have been told that the presentation should be available for public consumption on the RainmakerITV site sometime in the next few days for the entire world to see.

Check it out and I hope you enjoy it.

Where, oh where, had my little blog gone?

2008-05-25T18:57:00.000+10:00

Both readers have been in touch to let me know that they had missed my blogs and had noticed that I hadn’t posted since the start of the year. It was nice to know that someone cares and that both readers found value in the opinions and insights I share with them through this blog.

So, I guess you could say I have been a little busy over the last three or four months. Those of you who follow the company will know that we have had a fairly unusual and demanding few months. A combination of a fairly hefty ‘miss’ on the results for 2007 against the guidance which had been in the market, the immediate departure of our former CEO soon after and the mountain of work restructuring and moving the business forwards since then, has meant little time to devote to my blog. Sorry about that, but my mind has been fully engrossed with our team, customers and shareholders (equally focussed and equally important). Our share price has taken a pounding (what a market to release bad news into?) and we have had to deal with the obvious flow-on effects of disgruntled shareholders and the usual activity which ensues.

We have got a lot done in the first four months. The Chairman and CEO were able to give a good, pragmatic update at the AGM this week and I think our shareholders, while resentful that we have found ourselves in this situation, can see the merit and conviction in our approach and our progress. We are committed to making Hyro into the great company we know it has the potential to be.

So, you will see some more blogs from me over coming weeks and months. I enjoy the fact that many people I meet tell me that they have read my blog in the past (I presented in the Keynote at the Microsoft REMIX conferences this week and three people I met mentioned they had read, and now missed, my blogs). I regret the fact that few of them have the time or inclination to comment, argue or rebuke. Maybe I just need to make this a little more interesting….

Positions Vacant – a Billion Scriptwriters….

2008-01-23T08:50:00.001+11:00

I keep watching with interest, the continuing saga of the scriptwriters in the US. These people have apparently been on strike since 5^th November 2007 and, as usual, it is all about money. The consequences of this are dire – for goodness sakes we missed out on the Golden Globes and there are rumours that the TV networks could run out of Grey's Anatomy ….. could it be that people need to resort to conversation?

Interestingly, I am not sure that the popular User Generated Content sites are suffering the same shortage of content. Youtube now apparently hosts over 65,000,000 videos – and some of these are fantastic content.

At play here are a number of interesting trends. The changing options for consumption of video content ("snacking" on smaller, self contained rich media content pieces) and increased variety of mechanisms to access this content. Increasingly, the mobile handset will be used to access this content, as will connected TVs (such as the one announced by Panasonic which will connect to YouTube) and other IP enabled devices. Rich media entertainment is changing and the options available for consumers to pick and mix the content they want to see are greater than ever before.

There are some players out there who are embracing these changes now – working on strategies which spread the content over a range of channels and integrate these to provide a coordinated, complimentary offering. Some of these are even engaging the consumers in the process, with consumer feedback and contributions shaping the overall content experience. I am not talking about the reality TV genre as we now it now, I am talking about "Wiki-scripts" where the community contributes to the storyline and dialogue, and other initiatives which challenge the traditional model. It is yet to be proven that this model will generate sustainable supplies of good quality, consistent content, but a "drought" of established content may create the catalyst for this to be tested.

This, of course, presents some great opportunities and also challenges for marketers. Lining up your offer with content which is in demand, is a great way to reach targeted customers, who are consuming entertainment and content in a form and at a time they want to consume it. It might even follow that if these consumers have contributed to defining what this content is, it may be even more effective in reaching those target customer segments. There are even opportunities for marketers to create their own content and explore these increasingly popular channels. It may also provide a working case study of the opportunities to use collaboration as a way to develop advertising content and concepts …. another sign of evolution and innovation that digital services enable.

I remember someone once told me that one of the risks of "challenging the status quo" can sometimes be that you end up with an outcome you may not like. In forcing the hands of the networks and the content distributors, the scriptwriters may find out that the new world they create may not be the one they set out to find, and it may motivate others in the market to explore new and innovative ways to satisfy their requirements.

Last Year’s Six Very Big Things…

2008-01-14T14:44:00.001+11:00

Last year I had the audacity to offer up my list of six Very Big Things for the digital world – themes I thought we would see start to bubble up over the coming year. You can read these HERE and I am pretty happy with how I went. Internet use has continued to reach new heights both in terms of the number of people using it and the quality of access they have. The advertising budgets and the use of the internet by the big brands has increased significantly and with it comes the rise of digital services; the serious, commercial, business transforming use of digital channels to reach, engage and do business with customers. User-centricity is on the rise, through the rise of social networking (who got a Facebook / LinkedIn / Myspace / Bebo / [insert new aspiring social networking site here] page last year?) and more use of user generated content, while the use of the internet amongst non-English speakers continues to grow apace. Finally, digital connections continued to become more embedded in the fabric of our lives as out TVs, GPS systems, mobile phones and music devices all became a bit savvier this past year.

A couple of things didn't make it to my list, as they came on a little faster than I expected and I thought they would be themes for this year and maybe next. The rise of user generated video came much fast than I thought and shows us that people have a deep desire to contribute, communicate and create. I really thought this would take a couple of years to get as far as it has in one, but with video capture everywhere (from video cameras with hard disks to cheap webcams and mobile phones) there are masses of content looking to be broadcast and people are doing lots of it.

I was surprised by some of the big deals done last year and the prices paid for businesses like DoubleClick, Realtime 24/7 and Aquantive. These businesses provide the systems and the services to aggregate advertising planning, buying and management for advertisers and their acquirers (Google, Yahoo and Microsoft respectively) have seen the enormous opportunity for vertical integration amongst their online advertising inventory and their technology offerings. This for me is a sign of the increasing momentum of the digital services industry and the great opportunities for those who service it. Exciting times.

There is one thing I have learned in my now 15 years in this game (it is THAT long since I first stumbled across this crazy emerging thing called the Mosiac 0.89b web browser – about 1.6 million 'internet years' as my more youthful colleagues are quick to remind me) is that you cannot ever assume that you can see everything that is coming. This technology is truly transformational and that creates opportunities for innovators, renegades and the creative to do things which shift or nudge the evolutionary path we are on. In my experience, the best thing to do is to act on the things you can see with confidence and react quickly to those things you don't expect. As we have proven in our business, having a sense of the opportunity the future holds is one thing, but being able to turn that perception into a working, dynamic business is another.

It is going to be another great year for digital services and I look forward as we continue to change the world.

Another whimper of things past … and a sniff of things to come!

2007-12-31T16:06:00.001+11:00

I saw this article today and it reminded again of just how much things have evolved in the 15 years since I started my odyssey in the internet industry. The articles tells how the Netscape Web Browser, the universal browsing client which transformed the way we thought about finding, accessing and interacting with information and services, is no longer going to supported from the 1^st of February 2007. Things have moved on – IE (now in version 7), Firefox (thankfully which had its genesis in the same community which spawned Netscape) and the likes of Safari, Opera and others have come to dominate the browser space.

As one icon passes, we can prepare ourselves for the next big evolution in the way we present and interact with information online. This year, keep an eye out for the rise of the "browser free" internet application. These are self contained, internet based, rich media applications designed to reach specific consumers with very targeted, sophisticated and highly graphical, rich media content and services. I know I have mentioned this before, but I see the passing of the technology which made this all possible, which paved the way which brought the potential of the internet onto the computers of the masses, as a fitting signal of the next big thing.

Technologies such as Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight (we at Hyro have just launched the ABC TV Video Player in Silverlight – a real market leading innovation) and the next generations of programming technologies such as AJAX and JAVA will once again transform the way we reach, engage, do business with and service our customers. There is REAL money to be made here for those companies who get it right. The right combination of content, marketing and commercial grade technology will create new, valuable channels to market and it is great to be part of a team who is leading the way in delivering this capability.

Finally… thanks to both readers for their support this year. While I don't get too many comments, I do get some respectable traffic. I remain committed to having my say on the things which delight, inspire, surprise or just get me thinking through 2008. Happy New Year and I wish you all health, happiness and prosperity in 2008.

This isn’t a game …..

2007-12-21T15:49:00.001+11:00

Articles like this highlight for me a recurring theme that I am sure both readers are getting a little weary of. Once again I find myself railing about the fact that major corporations sometimes don't seem to comprehend the commercial significance of initiating any sort of digital activity. In this case, a major US retail group has announced that a systemic security flaw in their online systems has allowed hackers to gain access to customer confidential information and payments data for something like eighteen months. It has been described in some articles as the "biggest hack ever!"

I won't go on for ages, but will quickly comment to state the obvious. Initiating digital channels should be something which is well planned, well architected, well funded and well tested. Any digital channel is a dynamic path to market which exists in an environment which is changing all the time. New technologies emerge, new hacking techniques get created and new risks to the business continue to emerge.

This is not something which you can afford to "set and forget," nor is it something you can afford to leave in the hands of anyone but an expert. The day you turn on your new online store, mobile portal, online campaign or customer self service system, you enter into a new commitment, a commitment which requires constant and dedicated focus. The risks emerge due to the nature of the medium. Any potential hacker, malcontent or miscreant has the advantage of time, anonymity and resources to plan, trial, test and execute their initiatives. I think many corporations fail to fully RESPECT these people; they are very smart, very experienced and very capable and managing the risks a well executed hack may present demands an appropriate plan which duly considers the capabilities of your foes.

As we go into the New Year, most corporations will be looking to kick of their latest digital initiatives and it is a time to think carefully about who you partner with to deliver these. Sure your ad agency might deliver some great campaign ideas and some cool creative, but do they REALLY understand and can they really manage the technical, operational and environmental risks, challenges and opportunities.

2008 is the year for getting even more serious about digital initiatives and it is the year to work with a specialist, dedicated, full-service digital services company.

Online Shopping's got everyone hopping...

2007-12-16T18:23:00.000+11:00

The press has picked up a few stories about the surge in online shopping this year and of course, the most timey statistics are coming from the US. A quick search for online shopping data shows that the level of online shopping occuring in the US market is up almost 20% on the same time a year ago. Good coverage can be found at Internetnews.com and others.

Looking into this statistic a little highlights just how far we have come in a few short years. Do a search on online shopping statistics and you see mention of expectations of daily revenue topping US$800m on a single day before Christmas. This is VERY serious business, particularly when one considers that these growth statistics are being sustained of increasingly higher bases.

You also see mention in some of these articles of some of the consequences of a lack of commercial foresight on the part of some of the participants. There is much talk of sites crashing under the weight of traffic and for me, this is just unacceptable. These companies are IN THE BUSINESS of online shopping and these days of on-demand computing, massive scalability and great advances in software, data management and online marketing, there is just no excuse for your core business platform failing. The only possible reasons could be under investment, holding onto legacy technologies or just bad management.

Thankfully, we are seeing many of our clients getting on the front foot and suggested investment levels for 2008 are refreshing (and exciting for the business). There is growing acceptance of the importance of digital channels as a permanent and significant part of the "go to market" mix now and the strategies, investments and the work at hand ae reflecting this. This is not just an "online advertising" story. The investments are coming in the way our customers, attract, engage and transact with their customers as well has how they maintain relationshps once the initial transaction has occured. The thinking is sophisticated and the business opportunities are exciting.

Every year I look back at this time and think about how far we have come in just a year and this year is no different. Looking forward to next year though, I feel as though we will see even more change and the view back in a years time will contain even more (positive) surprises.

We really ARE changing the world!!

And then a million more....

2007-12-05T02:51:00.000+11:00

This week saw the news that the number of domain names issued under the .au namespace as surpassed the ONE MILLION mark. Quite an achievement as it suggests that there is one domain name for every 21 of Australia's population!!

There is a lot in these two statistics. The sheer number of domains means that marketing and branding in this very crowded environment is just getting more and more difficult. All of the intuitive domain names are long gone (and worth a lot of money - albeit that many seem to be retained by early-age domain prospector who registered them years ago and don't have the money or business to fully leverage. Never mind, one of the big guys will no doubt eventually buy them). In fact, it is getting more and more difficult to register phonetically practical domains with under about ten letters in them. (There are businesses out there who just register tonnes of domain names and hold onto them in the expectation that someone will want them one day and will need to buy it from them!!). So .... just registering the domain name and expecting the money to flow in is well and truly "last century."

Making your domain work for you is increasingly the job for sophisticated professionals. These people bring together the right mix of marketing, creative, content, user experience, technology and ongoing management to turn a domain name into a working, commercial business. Many a dollar has been wasted by companies failing to address all of these elements in appropriate proportions.

The second message for me is that 1,000,000 domains on the little old .au namespace sends a clear message. EVERYBODY is doing this. It might surprise both readers to hear that there are STILL companies in Australia, New Zealand and Asia who do not see digital channels as the core platform for marketing, customer engagement, customer service and commerce. My job is to keep pointing out the obvious ... if you haven't doubled (or more) your allocation of your marketing and customer service budgets to digital services in 2008 then prepare to lose market share.

Your competitors ARE doing this and they ARE throwing serious money at it. They are working with significant professional specialists (and not asking their ad agency or traditional technology provider to try and be something they are not) and they are getting commercial results ...... and once you have worked out that you too need to follow suit .... drop me an email.

Ratings are grating ....

2007-11-25T20:22:00.000+11:00

I was watching the Sunday morning news this morning (following yesterday's election results the post-mortem commentary has been interesting) and the presenters announced that "this was the last show for the year." It appears that despite all of the signs that the media world is changing, we again find ourselves at the abyss of the "non-ratings period" - that time of the year when Christmas specials and d-grade TV content makes it onto our screens.

I am surprised that this tradition has been maintained this year, particularly given the challenge of traditional media to retain consumers in light of better, faster and more compelling digital alternatives. I expect that this year will see more people sampling online content in lieu of yet another purile All-American Christmas Special (it DOESN"T snow here at Christmas ... really!) and next year will see more new strategies from the main industry players to integrate to and leverage the new, digital media mix. It will again be an interesting and exciting time and we look forward to doing our part to help our clients make the most of the opportunities these changes present.

Context is a Very Big Thing!!

2007-11-11T20:57:00.000+11:00

I had a discussion with an industry colleague through the week about what we thought were going to be some interesting trends in online advertising over the next twelve months… it is a VERY big topic and we covered a lot (I might try and get a few more blogs out on it in the next few weeks), but one item which we are talking about more and more with our clients is the importance of context… and trust me, context is a an important trend for 2008 and beyond.

Context is about adding new dimensions to the enormous power of online advertising; using digital channels to connect an offer and the ability to act on the offer. We’ve known for a while that the potential of online advertising is enhanced by using technology to increase the granularity of advertising (making many very specific, very relevant offers suited to small groups of customers). We also know that by using a combination of digital channels we can add timeliness (being able to make an offer when it is important to customers) and location (being able to make an offer based on where a customer is physically located). Each of these individually adds a lot to online advertising, but together they take it to a whole new level.

Over the next year, we will see more and more companies talking about the importance of combining relevance, timeliness and location to service a key element which drives many (if not most) buying decisions – context. Context is about understanding the why, the when and the where of the actions of a consumer so we can provide an offer which best services the needs of the consumer.

Context is important. As we go through another year of astounding growth in online advertising (with the share of total advertising for many advertiser expected to go above 25% of total budgets in 2008) there will be more pressure on marketers to refine their execution of online advertising and to deliver the right outcomes for their business. One of the ways in which this can be executed is by delivering offers to customers which are the RIGHT offers, at the right time and in the right context for the targeted customer.

The enabler of contextual advertising is technology and understanding how to leverage technology for effective digital marketing.

For marketers, 2008 needs to be a year in which you make a “contextual ability audit.” You need to assess whether or not you have the information about your customers, the sophisticated inventory of targeted offers for each of your customer segments and the tools, technologies and processes to deliver these context based offers. You can be rest assured that if you don’t ….. your competitors do.

Face(book)ing Up to A New Reality

2007-10-26T18:23:00.000+10:00

So Microsoft pays a bucket of cash for a thimble full of Facebook. Congratulations to the young man who established himself as yet another digital billionaire... those few years of hard work have really paid off!! (must break the hearts of those families who amass those sorts of fortune over generations... but this is business at internet speed!!)

Behind the headlines are some interesting stories. I have read three articles on this and so I still have to learn a lot more about it, but a couple of interesting tidbits come out. The first big one (and the topic of this blog) is that as part of the consideration, Microsoft secured the rights to sell banner ads (display ads in industry parlance) on facebook pages in all locations outside the US. Now THAT is interesting...

Microsoft has bought a business in which they are buying the advertising rights.... no talk of "platform integration" and "technology" ... this is all about traffic, customer profiles and marketing .. at least from my initial reading.

And all this a few months after they bought a company that sells an online advertising management platform.

Nicely Niche...

2007-10-21T20:40:00.000+10:00

Over the last couple of months I have discovered, and have been using a great new site called MapMyRun.com and I have to say this this is a great example of clever niche site dvelopment. The offering from the MapMy... team (they have several sites in the "family") is to use current generation mapping tools to allow users to (ans the name suggests) Map their run!

Based on the Google Mapping application, the MapMyRun tool allows users to draw a fairly detailed map of their run / walk / jog / wheel / whatever and then collect and create a fair bit of information about it. Obviously, you finally get a chance to find out just how far you have actually gone (and it nearly ALWAYS been less than the usual boasting value we ascribe) but you also get a whole pile ofother information. Google maps contain altitude data, so you get to know how high (or low) you have climbed. Add information such as you weight and the time you took and it will caclulate the kilocalories you have burned. It even allows you to create a log for your shoes and you can build up a record of how far those shoes have travelled.

In addition to providing an ability for me to get a better understanding of my training and allowing me to build a permanent record, the MapMyRun.com application also allows me to share my runs with others and join groups and so on. The MapMy... team have created something which is personal and pertinent and also allowed me to connect to a community. This is a very clever construction of a powerful niche marketing platform and marketers should look for similar well executed niches as channels for their targetted online marketing.

China, Macau and Hong Kong .... welcome!!

2007-10-09T16:08:00.000+10:00

A very brief note - we announced today that we have finalised the deal to acquire the Applications Services business of Getronics NV in Greater China; Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau.

This business, which has been in the region for more than 15 years and once traded as Wang (a VERY well known technology group), brings with it a very mature foundation for us to grow in the region. We have acquired an outstanding team, all the infrastructure and inputs we need to operate a business and a history of performance. This gives us the opportunity to further develop some strong, long term client relationships. We would never take these relationships for granted, but by focussing on continuing to provide good service, by building on the success of the past and adding new capabilities and services from the broader Hyro group, we can add even more value in the future.

It is very exciting and is a measure of how the changing nature of digital services - the fusion of marketing and technology - is creating opportunities for companies with the skills and experience to leverage them. It is even more exciting to be a part of something with the people, the vision and the resources to act on those opportunities.

The importance of being mobile ....

2007-09-23T16:10:00.000+10:00

This week saw the publication of an article I co-authored with our Director, Wireless & Broadcast Chris Flintoft in the Marketing Magazine 2007 Digital Survival Guide. In it we talked about the main factors brand owners and marketers should consider when assessing the role of mobile channels in their digital marketing mix. It hit the stands on Monday and I expect you'll see exerpts on the website soon. It's not a bad read (even if I do say so myself) and gives some insights into just how far the mobile channel has come in just a few years. I commend it to anyone thinking about the next steps for mobile with their business

Where Angels Fear to Tread....

2007-09-23T16:03:00.000+10:00

I experienced a bit of a "Spears-ism" on Friday night when I attended a charity evening for St Vincents Hospital. The highlight of the evening was to be a performance by Doc Neeson, lead singer of the Angels .... one of the GREAT Aussie bands of the 80s. Four songs (including the famous "Am I ever going to see your face again?") and it was perhaps better that it ended there. It was all a little sad to see one of the great performers reduced to a fatigued and rusty shell of performances past - he even forgot the words to one of the four songs he sang and had to to refer to a cheat sheet in his pocket.... still, it was all about raising money for a very worthy cause and that is all that really matters.

Searching for Sophistication....

2007-09-09T15:07:00.000+10:00

It has taken a little while to get around to this blog (end August / early September are a busy time with half-year reporting and investor presentations), but an article I spotted in one of the business papers frustrated me a little and I thought I need to comment. Both readers of this blog will know that if there is anything which gets up my nose, it is the fact that some of the traditional media and marketing businesses are now taking to selectively reporting the data about the shift in marketing and advertising onto digital channels.

The article concerned reported that online advertising company Atlas (part of the Aquantive group acquired by Microsoft recently for around US$6 billion) had done research which had suggested that "search advertising is about as effective as advertising in a directory(like Yellow Pages)."

This sounded a bit surprising to me, so I thought I would look into this a little more.

I hunted around the internet for either the report (as far as I can tell it will eventually be released here) or more journalist coverage of the report. As I suspected (and as reported in this article from BusinessWeek) there appears to be more to this data than the print newspaper had reported. From what I have been able to deduce, the conclusions of the report are not that search advertising is less effective than previously thought, but rather it is a waste of money to over-simplify your online advertising.

It appears from the Atlas research that successful online advertising is built through a compound effect of multiple types of advertising. Banners help referral marketing which helps display ads which helps search which helps websites which helps ..... you get the picture. Atlas calls this "overlap" and I think that this is another sign of the increased sophistication of successful digital services and digital marketing.

From all of this reading I have reached the conclusion that we really are still in the early stages of a significant structural change in customer attraction, engagement, servicing and transactions and the science of what we do is getting stronger and stronger every day. We see this in the work our teams are doing with our clients as the reach, variety and volume of digital activities continues to grow.

The epicentre for a lot of the client drivers for this still seems to be the US, but there is some strong innovation in Europe and som great entrepreneurialism out of Asia. Traditional businesses in our markets are coming along, but they could always do more... there is a lot of potential in the digital services market - and it is exciting to be in a company which is well placed, rightly resourced and with the right team to leverage this outstanding opportunity.

So.... I'll finish this where I started.... the traditional media continue to face some challenges as the market continues to evolve and change. There are a number of ways that they can respond to this change and adapting their business models and leveraging their strengths is probably the best of these.... feeding their customer base with selective reporting which skews the data supporting the change we are going through is certainly not.

When online user communities aren't all that they seem...

2007-08-26T19:58:00.000+10:00

This week saw the news that an enterprising young man called Virgil Griffiths has written a piece of software called Wikiscanner which tracks the source of edits made to Wikipedia entries. The site has drawn a lot of attention and lists some interesting results.

According to the information provided by the software on the "most active.gov.au sites" the Australian government has been very active, with the Australian Department of defence appearing at the top of the list. The non-government domains list doesn't provide much clarity, since many of the originating domain addresses resolve to the ISP who hosts them and these numbers will, of course, include private citizens who make changes to the entries. Trawl through the lists though and you will see some interesting corporate names pop up...

Others have covered the commentary about the motivations of these organisations for editing Wikipedia entries, so I'll focus on another perspective.

One of the challenges for organisations trying to access their customers through using Web 2.0 technologies and online communities to reach their customers is working out how to deal with the fact that some online communities may not be what they seem.

The WikiScanner experiment highlights the fact that some participants in these communities may not be who they say they are and may not necessarily be participating for the reasons for which the community was originally established. We need to be pragmatic - the very nature of these communities and tools means that we can't stop this sort of activity, so we need to use good practice to make sure that these activities do not compromise the intent of these intiatives.
Setting up an online community or web 2.0 resource is not something that should be done without a plan. The purpose should be clear - to both the organisation that is doing it and for the people who choose to participate.... and avoid subterfuge - a lot of damage can be done to a brand or reputation if you try to engage in web 2.0 activities under the guise of independence or anonymity. Be open, be honest and wherever your community chooses to step outside the intent and purpose, make sure that you deal with this in a manner which is consistent with the stated purpose of the community.

My message in this isa simple one; don't be fooled by the apparent simplicity of Web 2.0 and online communites. We have been working with these concepts and the technologies that support them for a number of years and there are plenty of tips and techniques for getting more out of them ... and for managing the realities of these new, flexible and open environments. Call in the experts (and don't listen to the first baggy-pants wearing ad agency kidwith a shagy haircut and 7 iPods) and make the most of this exciting technology and the great relationshiop and brand building things it allows us to do.

Icebergs are COOL!!

2007-08-10T17:48:00.000+10:00

I was a little surprised when I opened the Australian Financial Review yesterday to see my beautiful visage peering out from the centre of Page 48. I was asked by the AFR for my opinions on the recently released internet advertising statistics from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and had a chance to share some thoughts about how those particular statistics really only show the tip of the real digital services iceberg. I was surprised when the journalist (Julian Bajkowski - thanks for inviting us to participate!) asked me if it would be Ok to include a photo .... I didn't realise that I would be permanently raising the aesthetic bar of the AFR IT Section!!*

There is a lot more to explore on this theme - yes internet advertising is growing at an amazing rate (54% for the year to more than $1.2 Billion in Australia alone!) but the impact on business, investment and digital services certainly doesn't stop there.

Internet Advertising measures (by my understanding) the amount of money spent on buying advertising space on online properties. These might be banner adds, iFrames, search terms, paid blogs (yes - some people DO get paid to write their blogs on behalf of advertisiers!! Not me though....) and so on. What it doesn't seem to include is the commerce that occurs around the final act of placing the ad.

Every online advertisement needs something to advertise - by definition interactive ads allow end users to interact with the offer being made. They click on the ad to go to a site, somewhere, that expands on the offer, allows them to register interest / research / buy and that gathers information about the whole chain of events. All of these things require investment - there is creative effort, execution effort, intellectual property, technology, measurement and analysis and more.

All of this goes to the fact that the interactive advertising statistics are just the tip of the iceberg. I have been asked a few times what I think this Digital Services industry multiplier might be - how much of the total investment does the actual "ad buying" represent.

In the newspaper I was quoted as saying that this might be a 2x effect, that the ad buying might be half of the total investment and today we have had a lot of debate amongst some colleagues about this fact. I am getting convinced that the multplier might be much more than that.

I will do some more research on this - I think that the market generally underestimates how much commerce is occuring as a result of the Digital Services transformation that is going on right now. And besides, if we are out there changing the world, it is important to have a sense of by just how much we are doing this.

*My mum thought I looked pretty good anyway....

Asia's online and its doing fine......

2007-08-02T08:26:00.000+10:00

I concluded one of my Quarterly Review trips to the Hyro Thailand office this week and one of the things which resonated during this trip was the great progress that is being made in terms of connectivity and bandwidth in that market.

We recently renegotiated a contract with our corporate internet provider and were able to double the speed of our connection, raise the committed data rate and cut the costs of our connection by around 35%. All because the general quality of service has increased and the market is getting more and more competitive.

It doesn’t stop there – many hotels in Bangkok now offer free in-room broadband internet for business travellers and the number of accessible wi-fi spots has risen dramatically over the last twelve months or so (I got to test this with my new phone – the outstanding HTC Touch which is the easiest wi-fi phone to connect to the internet that I have ever used. Oh, and it is a very functional and very pretty business phone as well!).

This augers well for the digital services industry. General statistics of levels of internet use, levels of available bandwidth and levels of commerce and advertising via digital channels are all trending upwards. It proves our experience in more mature markets – that the level and availability of broadband speeds define the critical “tipping point” for digital services adoption.

Even in emerging digital services markets, we are seeing how connected technology and changing marketing techniques are changing the world.

China Scale.....

2007-07-22T14:55:00.000+10:00

Followers of Hyro will be aware that we recently announced that we are in negotiations with European services organisation Getronics NV to acquire their Application Services Business in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau. This isn't the place to talk about that deal, but the work we have been doing in this area has highlighted the exciting scale and growth opportunities in the Chinese digital services market.

The first observation is the scale of the the online user market (and specifcally the level of broadband penetration) in both China and Australia. The "Broadband Penetration" chart to the right shows two interesting statistics; while the number of households with broadband access in China will run at about 10x the number here in Australia by 2011 (and be up around 80 million households), the level of penetration will still only be around 25% of households.

Mapping this level of broadband access is the expected rate of growth in the online advertising market over a similar time period. Zenith Optimedia (who have lower estimates for the Australian online advertising market than most local analysts). The Australian market for online advertising is expected to grow to around US$2 Billion by 2009, while the China online advertising market is likely to be nudging US$18 Billion in the same timeframe.

Lots of commentators talk about the size of the China market. For me, the scale is matched in terms of exicting potential by the fact that many Chinese businesses (and international businesses entering the China market) are doing so with digital services as major parts of their strategies. It is another example of emerging markets leap-frogging generations of traditional technology and business models to ake the very best of contemporary practices.

It will be very interesting and exciting to continue to watch the emergence of the China digital services market. This is a very real example of this exciting evolution that is changing the world.

Virtualisations get Second Life Second Wind...

2007-07-01T18:35:00.000+10:00

A News Corp article has caught my eye today. Journalist Katja Gaskell discusses the emerging trend of tourism destinations in virtual worlds; either virtual renditions of real-world tourism destinations or new constructions from the imaginations of their creators.

This article reminds me of the first time we saw the emergence of "3D Virtualisations" online - a long time ago, perhaps almost a decade. The technology was called VRML and we all toyed around with the technology to try and create virtual worlds through which avatars could interact. Trouble was, this was pre-broadband and even the fastest modems could provide much else other than a jagged, jerky, low-res experience. (Maybe we watched the Lawnmower Man or Tron a few too many times and just wanted to make it real). We then tried to create the 3D experience through some clever photographic handling. Cameras on special tripods and some clever photo-stitching software created 3D views of houses, hotel rooms and so on.

All of this was driven by the same thing - the desire to break the mould of the traditional presentation of information in a "document based paradigm" of text and still pictures. Sure, the internet added the hyper-link (the ability to connect information) and of course, the store of information we could access would become boundless, but the delivery was still much the same as traditional media.

People though, are sensory beings, and while text and pictures do deliver information, we prefer to use our five senses to provide a more complete understanding of the information we are being presented. One of the "holy grails" of information delivery has been to try and find ways to transform information delivery to a more "sensory rich" form.

I am not suggesting that Second Life achieves this objectives, but it is certainly an interesting first step. The ability to interact with information (and offers of course) in a 3D virtual environment offers a different perspective on the information. To bastardise a cliche, if a picture is worth a thousand words, then an interactive 3D virtualisation might evolve to be worth a thousand pictures. A 3D environment allows us to create new connections between pieces of information and new ways to present the infromation itself. Applications of this concept through environments like Second Life are creating ways in which users can experiment with these concepts and as usual, users are constantly surprising us with their ingenuity and innovation.

I have had the pleasure of speaking at the Creative Exchange Network in Melbourne (and will again this week in Sydney) about Virtual Worlds. Consulting company Mindwerx facilitates regular meetings of the Creative Exchange Network in Australia. The topic of my presentation is not about Second Life itself per se, it is about the changing ways we present information and services. As the bandwidth, processing power, rendering tools and the ability to integrate these to databases and transaction systems continue to improve, the opportunities and applications of rich media and virtualisations will continue to evolve. And it doesn't stop with virtual reality ... get ready for ideas like mixed reality - using technology to augment real-world activities... but more on that another time.

The feedback was fantastic (we had about 45 people attend, so corporate interest in pretty high). Corporations are looking for ways to reach customers in light of the increasing variety of channels and options for entertainment and obviously they will need to understand how rich media and virtualisations will figure in this. It is time to start experimenting and working out how you are going to use these innovations to change the (virtual) world.

Synergistic Thinking ....

2007-07-01T18:11:00.000+10:00

It has been almost a month since my last post - a pretty poor record for someone who enjoys blogging (particularly having my own soapbox - complete with the opportunity for others to share what they think about my ramblings). There has been a fair bit going on.

After my brief holiday at the end of May, I have back to work and have hit the ground running... and there has been plenty to do.

The main focus has been the integration of Synergy Software Holdings Limited and the associated businesses. This is following the final approvals from shareholders and regulators in the middle of May and comes at the end of six months during which we have needed to first complete due diligence and then undergo the fairly intensive task of running a "full process" to complete a scheme of arrangment and the acquisition. That is all done now, and Synergy is now a Hyro Company.

While there has been collaboration between the groups for months (we got to know each other when we started to work together for some of our clients) the finalisation of the deal has meant that we can fast-track the finalisation of the integration of systems and processes and more importantly, get on with introducing the full offer to all of our clients. There are other places to talk about the details (market information is disclosed on the Australian Stock Exchange and archived on http://www.hyrolimited.com/) but I did want to share some resonating benefits of the acquisition that I have experienced.

All of this is about the people. We have an exciting, growing business in an exciting, growing industry. Success in this environment comes not only from the offer you have to make to the market, but also the team with which you deliver it. The team at Hyro has always been impressive - we have great management and an outstanding team of professionals, regarded as the best in their fields locally and internationally. With the added community of Synergy people, we have added new, fresh depth of skills, ability, experience and professionalism - I am really enjoying the way the teams have stepped straight into working as one company, one management and one team. We are much stronger for the acquisition and even better positioned to change the world.

I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend....

2007-06-06T16:16:00.000+10:00

After a very different four or five weeks I am back in Sydney and life is returning to normal. Following my attendance at the IBM Partnerworld conference in St Louis, I was able to add a couple of weeks leave in the US and a swing by the UK before getting home. Lots observed and plenty to blog about, but sometimes one needs to take a break from the keyboard and this was one such welcome break.

As one does, I have been reflecting (with a slight sense of melancholy), on the whole experience I had on this trip and how much Digital Services affected the way our holiday unfolded. There was the usual stuff, travel bookings made and managed online, hotels researched and bookings made and so on, but the internet changed the our activities during the holiday quite substantially.

If you haven't been to New York City for a while, it is a BIG place and there is lots to do. As the dream-girl was quick to point out, there are unlimited choices for activities, sights and of course meals. Making sure you get the most out of the time there means making sure that you have all the information you need to make good choices. This is where Digital Services came in.

Take dining for example. With so many choices for so many good restaurants, decisions about where to eat came down to an anlaysis from a number of sources. Of course, the restaurant website presented a certain view, but we found ourselves soon looking at a rang of sources to verify and rate the claims made. While we cared a lot about wat the critics said (www.zagats.com and www.timeout.com for exampe provided a range of formalised ratings systems etc) of equal, and perhaps higher importance was the opinions of 'others.' We quickly found ourselves looking at 'public' reviews and ratings. www.tripadvisor.com, and the reviews posted on portals such as www.yahoo.com and reviews indexed by Google all provided us with the feedback of the connected masses.

These reviews mattered - we boycotted restaurants with complaints of bad service and mediocre food (and one which had a whole site dedicated to the claims of one patron that they were beaten up by the maitre de - described as a "very angry Frenchman"). We sought out restaurants that had delighted and impressed the visitors. These opinions certainly mattered.

This is not a unique phenomenon. Social sites rely on the references of others to create introductions, music stores allow users to rank songs and the video sites rely strongly on user-ratings to drive traffic and engage consumers. I guess it took my own experience of a short period of high reliance on these user opinions to guide purchasing decisions in unfamiliar markets to help me realise just how important this "referential marketing" can be.

I love the fact that this sort of transparency is possible. Corporations need to be aware that the silent masses really aren't so silent - bad customer experience and poor service are noted and communicated for all to see.

The maxim used to be that a satisfied customer will tell four others and a dissatisfied one would tell ten. Nowadays these opinions go to thousands (or more) ... another way in which digital services have changed the world.

The St Louis Kool Aid

2007-05-02T21:11:00.000+10:00

Currently on a bit of a trek, with the last week having seen me at the Hyro Thailand office in Bangkok, followed by a trek to St Louis, Missouri fo the annual IBM PartnerWorld conference. This is my first attendance at thi conference, an important partner event in light of our recent acqusition of Synergy Software Holdings Limited, the very first IBM partner in Australia now some 24 years ago.

It is about five years since I last came to the US (the internet and tools such as better email, web conferencing, Skype and chat mean that trips to the US seem to be required less often) and something is different.

Putting aside the sense that one is "entering the citadel" as you come through customs and immigration in LA, I have developed a feeling that all is not well in the U.S. of A. It might be St Louis; the town has closed two shopping centres in the CBD in the last twelve months and the streets of the business district are empty. It is a strange town, with very few shops and retail outlets. I tried to find a pharmacist in the City yesterday and was told that there isn't one. This is not a boom-town.

It has been interesting getting to know more about IBM and the partnership we have just joined. First of all, it is very clear to me just how much respect that our new additions to Hyro from Synergy have within this community. In front of around 7,000 people at the opening general session yesterday, Synergy CEO Bill Votsaris was thanked again for the support he and the Synergy team have given to IBM over those 24 years. He was one of only two people in the whole IBM partner community personally mentioned in that speech. It is great to have them on the team.

The second thing you get is a real sense of just how impressive the IBM organisation is. It is eye opening to see the innovation they are driving; through their own investment or support of partners. In the Innovations Centre there are technologies being showcased which are realising the potential of digital channels. The internet is evolving to be hundreds of millions of people and billions of connected devices. Digital Services are continuing to evolve. The connected organisation is going to be reaching customers and doing business over myriad devices. We will continue that evolution from explicit connection through special purpose devices to an "always on state" in which embedded technology will make digital connections and the use of Digital Services invisible.

For me, the wake up calls are just getting louder. For major companies, current strategies for Digital Services must include the laying of foundations to take advantage of this "invisible internet." You will need to make sure that the consideration of Digital Services Strategy acknowledges the fact that engagement and delivery of services will happen over both these implicit and explicit technologies. The offer may be made through the rich media channels but consumption of the offer may be over one of these embedded technology devices. Offer the take away food deal through the games console and fulfil the commerce through the mobile handset. Use GPS on delivery trucks to build geospatial analysis of consumption and use this information real-time to shape the delivery of offers. This stuff is real and this stuff is happening now.

Finally, my assumptions with respect to the importance of technology in all of this Digital Services revolution continue to be confirmed. In seeing the case studies and talking to the specialists, the data available from well executed and well supported digital services strategies is vast and this stuff is gold. The power of the technology to deliver, analyse, inform and refine digital services is amazing. The winners will be the ones who understand that boundless opportunity exists for those who invest fully in leveraging our digitally connected world. Good strategy, good engagement, good content, good commerce, good technology.

Do this right and you will change the world.

Click go the Cheers Boys .....

2007-04-17T08:48:00.000+10:00

Google has just announced that they are acquiring ad management company DoubleClick for the sum of US$3.1 billion in cash. There are a few things about this which are of note.

The first thing is that DoubleClick has been around for a LONG time in the online advertising space. Being a bit of a veteran myself in this industry (I can’t wait until I get Seniors Parking in SecondLife) I remember when DoubleClick first emerged in the second half of the nineties. Their idea was revolutionary then – attach some custom code to the display advertising used on websites and use it to automate the management, measurement and commerce around online advertising. Like most of the companies that were around then, I got the impression that they had to weather some tough storms as the business, the technical infrastructure and the rest of the world caught up with their vision. From my perspective, these were some guys with a big idea in a market which was then not quite big enough for it. Fast forward to today and they are a company which is clearly a market leader and clearly very valuable. Well done DC Guys!

The second observation is that this is an interesting acquisition for Google. They have bought one of the largest players in the digital display advertising space. Add this to their existing capabilities in search advertising, video advertising and their plays with print advertising and so on, and it appears that a piece of the puzzle (which it would have been VERY tempting for them to build in house) has just been added which really rounds out the offering for Google. No matter where you want to advertise, you can buy it from Google. I’d have to think that this puts further pressure on the traditional media buying relationships. The guys who used to be big in a particular segment or a particular geography are now under competitive threat from a competitor who is HUGE everywhere…. What does this mean for the local online media buyers who’s annual revenues are a fraction of the interest costs on the funds applied to this transaction…..

The third observation is that there is clearly a “race to scale” play going on here. Google are a very smart company and they clearly have the strategy of being number one in each offering in each market. US$3.1 billion invested here is but one option which would have been available to Google (they could have aggregated smaller players, maybe taken a multi-geography approach or as I said above, even toyed with the idea of having a go themselves) but al of these would have taken TIME to reach the scale required to achieve a “Number 1” strategy. By thumping down the cash they have created an opportunity to dominate another segment of the digital advertising market …. And changed he horizons for many companies in many markets around the world.

My fourth (and final) observation is that these guys paid, US$3.1 billion … in CASH. A business that throws that sort of cash from operations is incredibly powerful. For market segments where geographic boundaries are irrelevant (like media buying is now) this creates a new competitive terrain and will accelerate the challenges for those companies who have been a bit slow establishing their strategies to survive or thrive in this new Digital Services age….

I Have Caught Lihiriatum Digitalis ....

2007-04-11T15:17:00.000+10:00

I am sitting on the balcony of a friend's place on Lihir Island, a small, extinct (I hope!) volcano on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean and part of the beautiful country of Papua New Guinea. My friends have been bought here by the gold mine, a rich ore body in the caldera of the now extinct volcano. One of the few independently held gold mines in the world (Rio Tinto sold out their share a few years ago) it is an awesome enterprise - and it is one of the most ecologically friendly gold mines in the world.

The gold mine is the largest geo-thermally powered gold mine in the world. While working inside the caldera of a volcano does present its challenges (the rocks are warm underfoot and try working with explosives when the temperature inside the drill holes gets up over 140 degrees celcius!), when the volcano is in the tropics and it RAINS A LOT (over 7 metres a year), one side benefit is naturally occuring steam .... and lots of it! Lihir Gold Limited uses this steam to power two geothermal power stations which produce around 56 MW of power and power a big chunk of the production process (and the township).

I could go on about the mine (clearly a man never grows out of his fascination with Tonka Toys... some of the machines are really COOL!) and maybe I will in other places, but this blog is about the impact of Digital Services and the things I see as I go about my work and travels.

For the people who live on the island and work in the mine, the internet has fundamentally changed their lives. The mine has installed a fairly significant internet link to the island and this extends to services such as internet access in all company buildings and wireless internet access in the residential areas. For the residents, this is an important connection to the outside world and to families, friends and services which were once, literally half a world away - and this, in discussions with some of the locals, means a big difference in quality of life. Necessities (or luxuries) are now available at the click of a button and the regular freight services mean that many of the things the locals were previously deprived of are now able to be ordered and delivered. This is helping the people stay longer, enjoy their time here more and that is good for the community and good for the business.

For the company, it is also clear that the internet is changing the world. Supply to the island and the mine is more competitive than ever and it is clear that the benefits are filtering through to the operations. The amount of information to support the operation and about new products and innovations is extensive, changing the way the people who run the mine plan, innovate and operate their business.

It has been good to come somewhere as "real" as Lihir to see how the technology and services we have been working on for more than a decade are really making a difference. Living here in a digitally connected environment no longer means that the place these people choose to live and work in defines the opportunity and lifestyle they have available. I am writing this blog from a tropical paradise and have done banking, managed a couple of share investments and even sent a present to a friend while I have been here... looking at a Lihirian Sunset with a cold SP Lager in my hand, it is easy to imagine catching Lihiratum Digitalis.....

When I contemplate this community and this business a decade ago with basic telephone services and compare it to today and the luxury of online commerce and digital services, I get a clear sense that this is a very tangible example of how we have really changed the world.

Happy Birthday SHB .....

2007-03-18T22:22:00.000+11:00

It has been a hectic few weeks - another trip to Bangkok to work with the excellent team there and a lot of activity around the completion of the Synergy acquisition for Hyro and all sorts activities surrounding end of year reporting and the ongoing growth of the business as a whole....
one personal high-light has been the celebration of the 75th birthday of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. We took the walk today over the Bridge and it remains an outstanding experience.

The ingenuity, the endeavour and the persistence to see a dream realised 75 years ago teaches us some lessons today. If you believe that the thing you are doing today will lead to change and benefit for generations to come, then nothing is too big, too complex and too challenging to take on. When you dream big and follow through ... then you get to change the world.

It is an amazing thing the Sydney Harbour Bridge ... drive over it, look up and say a word of thanks to those who never gave up ..... well done guys .. you DID change the world.

AIMIAhhhhhh...ha...ha

2007-03-03T23:02:00.000+11:00

A quick post to celebrate the fact that the wizards at Hyro got to celebrate not ONE, not TWO ... but TWO AND A HALF "Ami" awards at the 13th annual AIMIA awards in Sydney on Friday night.

The team are amazing - they got nominated as finalist SEVEN times (more than any other group!!) and they WON two awards and got a Highly Commended in a third category.

WOOO HOOOO to you guys.... see... you ARE changing the world.

Nibbling, gnawing and slowly taking the cream....

2007-02-25T21:14:00.000+11:00

I was sent a link to this article by a friend of mine and was asked what I thought... so here it is. (apologies about the link requiring that you register before you read it, but the NY Times article is, to my mind worth the effort).

The article describes the arrival of the "virtual ad agency" which, when you get past the fluff of it, describes an innovative business which uses a pile of stock materials (stock TVC footage, stock creative, stock print templates etc) to offer advertisers the ability to "make their own ads."

That itself is not new - desktop computer applications and web hosting companies have been doing this for years (and to be frank, there is a section of the advertising market that this is perfectly adequate for). What is new, is that these guys are explicitly stating that they are trying to commoditise some of traditonally "easy money" activities of the traditional agencies.

Take, for example, a large agency group who does the ad work for, say a car rental company. I am sure that in addition to the topline agency and production fees, there is a nice little earner in paying the studio juniors to localise the TVC ads for every single location - dropping in the branch address and phone numbers 500 times for 500 local TV stations. Well, not any more. The business model of the"virtual ad agency" seems to include the ability to "self-edit" these TVCs on the fly - pushing the effort and cost to the customer and the revenue and margin away from the traditional agencies.

I am sure that this, in itself, is not going to be the straw which breaks the agency camel's back, but it is yet another sign of the "pressure at the margins" that traditional agencies are facing... a torture by a thousand cuts as one more thing after another gets challenged or changed by this exciting Digital Age age we live in.

How agencies respond (evolve??) will be an interesting space to watch over the next couple of years. As many have already proven, it is hard to "race" into the digital services space since it takes a lot of time, effort and experience to build up quality capability in this space (we have been constantly improving for more than a decade!) and simply throwing money at it won't help. It is time for agencies to really get their heads around where they really add value and to get out of all those things which are outside of this.

As I always say, I really enjoy my job because we get to change the world.... the challenge for some others is learning (fast enough) to live in this new world we are creating.

Four-sight in Second Life????

2007-02-13T12:13:00.000+11:00

Having just come back from some “time on the island” in Second Life, I decided I would climb down from my virtual soapbox and give my digital one a whirl.

The source of my passion is an article from the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday.

I am in the fortunate position of having a LOT of experience in the Digital Services industry, having founded what was probably one of the very first, if not the first, web development companies in Australia over a dozen years ago. Over this time, I have seen EVERYTHING we have on digital channels “come”, and a fair few things “go.” I was there when we built the first online store in Australia, I was there when we took the first credit card payments, and I was personally chased out of the boardroom of one of our biggest banks who told me firmly “people will NEVER want to do their own banking over this thing called the internet.” I reckon I am pretty qualified to have my say.

In my time in this industry, I have learned that when some of the big things happen, it is important that one doesn’t race to conclusions based on the here and now, but rather that one takes some time to consider the potential.

I remember when the first nerds learned that they could hit the keys on a mobile phone in a certain order and make a tune – a pretty poor rendition of “The Locomotion” soon followed, but we knew then that musical ringtones had potential and that the mobile phone was a platform of unlimited potential (the early subscribers to WAP services were measured in their – low – thousands in the early years and look at that industry now). I remember logging onto my first online auction, a clumsy, unstable sort of affair which relied more on the goodwill of the people involved than it did on the technology and the presentation. I remember the first time we delivered “personalised content” to a consumer via a website, really just a different interface for people who were already customers, rather than new visitors who were yet to buy. In all these cases, we pretty quickly discovered that where we started was only the early execution of a potentially limitless idea. And in all cases, from that day on, we explored, experimented, learned and invented.

At Hyro, we now employ more than 300 people throughout Australasia who share the outcomes of that process of discovery with our clients who are now embracing the reality that Digital Services are permanent, persistent and important.

Second Life is one of those “big things” which is a platform of limitless potential and is an early execution of a very big idea. We have been working on gaining an understanding of the future that Second Life telegraphs for several months now and have ourselves launched into the virtual void with our own island – a place in which we are trialling recruitment of virtual citizens* for real world jobs – acknowledging that the sorts of people we want to work with include people who already “get this Second Life thing.”**

We are learning that the internet is no longer “flat” – built only around page like text and graphics, but has amazing possibilities for new ways of communicating ideas and offers. Rich media is increasingly important and this already goes beyond the materials we create and distribute to things ordinary people devote their time, intellect and creativity to. Some of this is a video in a video site, some of this is virtual commerce in Second Life, some of this is things that are yet to be invented. We are learning about a new style of business – why is there commerce of $US1 million a day in second life? What is of value? Why do people want to trade these things? Why do these communities form? What opportunities do they present? We are learning new technologies, new creative media, new styles of interaction…. We are discovering the potential.

An aside - I do despise simple, reverse engineered statistics such as the claims in the article that there are "only about 3,000" Australians in Second Life at any time, drawn by multiplying the number of active users by the estimated number of total users from Australia. This calculation doesn't take into account time zones (note that Australian's are awake while Americans are asleep) nor does it provide any basis of validation. Truth is, we don't know how many Australians are active in Second Life at any point in time - and this will change throughout the day. Sure it isn't millions right now, probably not even hundreds of thousands, but does it matter? I remember when I got my first mobile phone back in the 80s - we counted the number of people who owned and used these klutzy wirless handsets, with poor battery life and dreadful call quality in the tens of thousands then.... and now, there is more than one mobile handset for every Australian (excluding the aged, the infants and the invalids).

So, is Second Life a waste of time? Not at all. Our recent history is littered with companies who have seen places which should have “naturally been theirs” in this connected, digital world taken by rivals or start-ups (or even worse), all because they failed to see the potential and weren’t brave enough to invest a little time and a little money understanding it before they dismissed it as frivolity.

Maybe there are some lessons there….. the last time this happened, some companies had their backs turned while we got on with the job of changing the world....

* The irony is not lost on me that the very publication which carried the article I am ranting about in yesterday's edition is the same publication that I applaud for promoting our current innovations with content licensing and virtual world recruiting - thanks to the folks at the SMH for the balanced reporting!

**Nice Virtual Photo from the entry point to our virtual recruitment centre of me and my digitally buffed colleague Chris - they didin't name us in the article but we know who we are!

Digital Divining...... The Next BIG Things!

2007-01-28T16:56:00.001+11:00

Now that the sunscreen has been put away and the clogged roads back to the city have been endured, it is time to devote some attention to things Digital for 2007 – so here are my predictions of the next big things in the digital services space....

Saturation Reached - The latest ABS survey shows that Internet Usage has risen STEEPLY. Now > 50% of all internet users use broadband. In higher income households, access to the internet is over 80% (and at 90% for >$120K p.a. households).

This is significant - more homes than not (and the most of the wealthiest homes) have high speed internet access. This firmly establishes the internet as a viable, permanent and essential channel– an essential part of the overall mix.

A digital strategy is no longer optional and an under-funded digital strategy is a disaster waiting to happen.
Boom Go the Strong Brands - Smart companies have clung onto control of their brand in the online space.

It is increasingly important to be clear about your brand, what you offer, who you want to reach, your values, etc. Confused brands will suffer in digital channels - consumers can click away faster than you can explain.

Brands which have compromised their position through quickly inked deals based around shared branding, being one of many players in a portal or, shock-horror, who have been sold short-sighted media plans from agencies (adding some banner ads to a traditional media buy is not a digital strategy), will see the strong, clear brands stride past them in building strong, commercial value-adding customer relationships.
The Start of The Invisible Internet - with the arrival mass-market of high-speed wireless internet (3G data) we will see new “always connected” devices. Special purpose entertainment devices, smart-billboards, connected POS devices and more.

Consumers will no longer have to consciously connect to consume digital services, advertising and content…. And the internet will start to become “invisible.”
The rise and rise of digital services - 2007 is the year of digital services (commercially connecting advertising, marketing and technology).

Digital channels allow you to make an offer to a customer, with a built in ability to "act" on that offer - which means customers providing information, transactions and customer self service. This is REAL business with REAL money changing hands and the numbers are getting big. Corporations want experienced specialists who can connect the creative, the content and the commerce in a robust and secure way - and that is the domain of the Digital Services specialists.
Internationalisation at break-neck speed – Internet usage in Asia is growing at twice the rate of North America and internet users in Asia, Europe and Latin America outnumber the North Americans by 3 to 1. Investment in commercial solutions in these markets is on the increase, so expect new competition in international markets - and expect these international players to reach further into yours.

Digital channels are truly international - learn to reach, support and service customers in their local markets and learn to use their local language.
YOU will reign SUPREME - it isn't insignificant that Time Magazine named YOU as the Person of the Year, acknowledging that 2006 was the year in which user-generated content went mainstream and the power of the connected consumer bubbled to new levels.

This trend of the collective power of informed (and uninformed) connected consumers will accelerate. Brands could be built and broken in days and weeks as the harshest judges of all - the customers - build on their new-found power to no longer be the silent majority.

Be careful what you say, be careful what you do - because I (and many, many, many more "I's") am watching you!!

I could continue with some more of the traditional "wallpaper predictions" ..... Internet Advertising Will Continue to Rise (no kidding!) .... eCommerce will continue to grow (of course it will!) ..... More customers will serve themselves via digital channels (why wouldn't they?) ..... and convergence will continue (what's going to stop it?), but these things are now stating the bleeding obvious.*

The next big things of 2007 and beyond are those deep, cultural, structural things that will redefine the marketplaces in which we work.

It is an exciting time - the momentum is building and there is growing evidence that we are, in fact, changing the world!

*(Albeit that they weren't so obvious when I was saying them in years past - mind you, I am the guy who, in 1995, was kicked out of the boardroom of one major bank in this country because "customers will never want to access their bank accounts over this 'internet thing' you talk of….").

Why-reless???

2007-01-21T20:49:00.000+11:00

The weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review pickedup a snippet on the news-wire that the number of people in the US who have dropped a "traditional telephone service for wireless" rose by 40% to 21,000,000 in the first half of 2006, when compared to the first half of 2005. It went on to say that "about 11% of households had at least one wireless and no wireline phone service."

This is an interesting, but certainly not surprising trend. As somewhat of an "old man of the internet industry" here in Australia (I started what I believe was the very first web development company in Australia in 1994) I have a long and vivid memory of the talk about the "wireless dream." As early as the mid-nineties we were talking about the potential of wireless, and even worked on a few early projects in TCP/IP based field-force automation and very early SMS. The issue was always about the bandwidth and the capability of the devices.

Fast forward to 2007 and it is a very different time. There have been significant advances on both sides of this equation; devices today are amazing and continue to surprise and delight and the wireless networks, well, WOW. I know I have raved about the Telstra NextG network in past blogs, so I won't do that again, but we are in a world where we have now got 3.6 Mbps to the handset (and mooted to be upped to 14.4 Mbps - faster than I get on my ADSL2 connection at home!!).

As for the devices, the handsets available today are fantastic, and the ones on the way look as thought they are going to offer us even more (the Apple Phone [lawsuit pending] looks pretty and clever - no 3G though - and some of the innovations from the major phone makers - like the Nokia N95 - look tremendous). These are incredibly powerful, flexible and capable multi-media computers, sitting in the pockets of consumers, business people, etc.

The link here is that we are reaching, in my opinion, a point of confluence of critical factors which will see mobile access become the dominant connection for consumers and business within the next few years. As consumers get more and more from their mobile, the attachment to the "wireline" will become less and less. In fact, we are probably already at a point where consumers can get MORE from their mobile connection than they can from the old bakelite rotary dialer on the telephone stand in the hall. I reckon the telco's have to like it, more use of mobiles and more acceptance as the primary telephone connection (and a connection to an individual rather than a connection to an address!) means more chances for value added services and new revenue streams.

All of this augers well for us and our position as a leading supplier of mobile solutions. There aren't any excuses for there not being a strong, comprehensive mobile strategy in the plans of every major corporation or government agency; consumers and businesses have the latest mobile technology (or will get it in the next 12-18 months) and are using it... and are turning off some of their traditional communications channels

If you haven't got a plan, call me, because we are REALLY good at this stuff..... and it is this stuff which is a very strong sign that we ARE changing the world.

CANON ..... Can Do!!!

2007-01-02T08:25:00.000+11:00

One of the benefits of the Christmas / New Year break is that it is a great chance to catch up on some reading. In amongst the recreational reading (I recommend Two Lives by Vikram Seth, the guy who wrote the very successful, very readable, albeit huge, A Suitable Boy) I have also had a chance to catch up on a few magazines.

In the middle of all this, I came across the PC Authority Reliability and Service Awards for 2006. According to the magazine's publishers, over 8,500 consumers submitted opinions on 142 products / services / vendors via an open, online survey. Consumers were able to nominate any vendor / product / service in each category, but for inclusion in the survey sample there needed to be 100 individual responses. Based on what I can deduce from the overview provided in the magazine, this seems to be a pretty good quality survey - responses from consumers are at their own discretion, submitted by themselves without interviewer intervention and the sample sizes have some statistical validity.

Amongst this, the standout vendor for me was Hyro client, Canon . Canon was the winner in three categories (most significantly they won EVERY CATEGORY THEY WERE NOMINATED IN!):

Inkject Printers - 94% of over 1800 respondents said they would buy from Canon again (only two products received more than 1,000 respondents in this category)
Laser Printers - 94% of respondents said they would buy from Canon again
Digital Cameras - 96% of over 1700 respondents (twice as many respondents as the second most rated product) said that they would buy from Canon again.

This, in my opinion, is a remarkable result. There is an old maxim in customer service (badly paraphrased) that a satisfied customer will tell, at most, 4 people about their experience, while a dissatisfied customer will tell 10. In an online survey (where the user must be self-motivated to submit a result) to have that many customers provide responses and for the quality of the responses to be so high is testimony to the serious commitment and tireless effort this company puts into supporting and servicing their clients long after the initial sale.

I like these sorts of surveys - in my experience they usually deliver fairly frank and "pure" results. It is hard to contrive an outcome when the results are collected anonymously and the number of respondents is so high. Canon can take a lot of pride in these results.

There is a lot for other companies to take from this example. While advertising (online and ofline) provides you with an opportunity to express your value, proposition, brand values and more, the online environment provides a real opportunity to LISTEN to what your customers are saying about you. There are lots of examples of the power of the 'blogosphere" to garner consumer action when things aren't right (recall the famous Apple iPod battery campaign which kicked off in blogs in 2004/05). This is a great example of the alternative; customers using the internet to tell you when you are getting things right. The new customer relationship is bi-directional and smart marketers are tapping into positive feedback and customer referral, delivered online, as a means to increase customer loyalty and of course, generate sales.

If you are after a "Digital New Years Resolution" then I commend you to expand your online marketing plans for 2007. Leverage the power of the internet as a bi-directional customer engagement tool - this is one of the very tangible ways that what we do can help to change the world!

Happy New Year and we wish everyone a prosperous, rewarding and digitally enhanced 2007!

So …. did one of my entries get edited?

2006-12-19T09:24:00.000+11:00

I have to admit that yes, I recently took the unprecedented step of editing one of my blogs after it had been posted, but I think it was with good reason.

In my usual style, I tend to flavour my posts with a little bit of humour (some might say a very little bit) and added a post in which opened with some frivolous rants provided in a very light-hearted context. Reading the full blog, it would have been clear what my intended message was, however it seemed that one journalist in particular decided to paraphrase these frivolous comments and use them, out of context, as the basis for an article.

Despite a couple of phone calls and an email chain asking that the context and intent my blog be preserved, the article was printed this week, suggesting that I was “attacking” free to air TV stations.

I was not.

The intention of my blog was to communicate my support for the strategies of some of the visionary activities we are seeing in the market - including from free to air stations extending their reach via complementary delivery channels - which I am pleased to say, we are working very closely to support. Unfortunately, this message was not preserved and so I took the liberty of taking my humourous entrée out. Hopefully the blog as it stands now leaves no doubt.

If my opinions were taken out of context, I apologise.

The Yuletide is rising ....

2006-12-18T17:01:00.000+11:00

A quick note in what is already a crazy week (there are ALWAYS last minute things that our clients need done before Christmas) to reflect on the year.

In a "very unusual year full of very unusual things" we have seen some pretty significant, structural changes in the digital services and associated markets. It was the year that the online marketing budgets got serious (well, a little serious anyways - we still have a way to go). It was the year that the majority got connected and the connections got quicker. More people are using digital channels to become informed, to be entertained, to communicate, to consume, to connect and the range, depth and quality of services we offer is rising to meet these ever increasing demands.

This was the year of YouTube, MySpace and YourThis and OurThat - but importantly it was the year that the consumers got involved - and the Web 2.0 movement was born. (I am working on Web 4.0 - just you wait until you see that!!).

On a personal front, it was the year I got to see first hand the evolution of a good company into a GREAT company. I have watched some amazing, intelligent and motivated professionals create some outstanding and ingenious things for our clients. These are truly EXTRAORDINARY people. (and no - I won't limit this sort of praise to the company newsletter - I am loud and I am proud when it comes to my colleagues!).

Finally, it was a year in which I saw our investors and supporters get rewarded for their belief in what we have done and their faith that we can deliver what we we are setting out to do. Thank you.

Most of all ... it was the year in which we set out to change the world..... and dammit!! we are doing it!

Old habits die hard...

2006-12-10T20:00:00.000+11:00

I have to admit that I am a little surprised that the traditional media has fallen into their usual "summer schedule" for 2006/07, raking very hard at the bottom of the content barrel for muck to fill the timeslots until "ratings season" starts again in the new year. To some extent these "old habits" are a function of the way the industry used to work - things were measured during the ratings periods and the content offerings were scheduled accordingly... and I guess that "Liposuction Live 2002 - Where Are They Now" and re-runs of re-runs 0f re-runs are going too keep the viewers committed to good old free to air TV for what, 13 or 14 weeks.....

There has to be some risk to this strategy, since we are now in a time and a market where consumers have a wider range of choices. Sure there is some great sport on the box this summer, but the filler around it is not providing too many "must watch" moments from what I can see. To my mind, this is going to provide consumers with a good chance to try some new sources of entertainment and I expect that the rich media content websites live Heavy.com, YouTube and MySpace can expect to see some extra traffic over the coming couple of months.

I don't necessarily think that this will mean that consumers will leave TV in droves, but rather that there will be a bigger chunk of the viewing audience who come out of this summer period with a different set of expectations about how they obtain and consume their entertainment. Over the last year consumers have shown us that they want greater choice and flexibility in the way they get their entertainment and digital channels are increasingly an integral part of that.

In my opinion the smart operators are already acknowledging this and are implementing strategies to take advantage of the best that digital channels have to offer. Well constructed websites and mobile content provide great ways to engage consumers outside of the timeslots in which this content is broadcast. We are already seeing the internet being used to engage consumers in the lead up to, and alongside FTA TV content, as well as providing a way to maintain engagement after a show has been broadcast. I very strongly believe that the quality of the content will be what allows it to draw and retain an audience and integrating digital channels to the broadcast schedule will allow broadcasters to leverage this quality to a greater extent and for longer periods of time. In my opinion, it is important to create distinct engagement around the content as well as the broadcaster to ensure that consumers engage in the way which best suits them.

So what of this summer and summers coming? I think that the future will show us that customers want content which entertains them when they want to consume it. I may have missed an episode of a show and want to catch up on a story, be involved in the development of the next installment of the series, or be entertained by supporting content and services between seasons. For me, now is the time to acknowledge that consumers connect as much with the content as they do with the organisation who delivers it, and to implement strategies accordingly.

The great and exciting thing is that all of this is happening at a time when the technology, the channels and the understanding of the business have evolved sufficiently to help to realise the potential of digital channels. We have reached an exciting time in the evolution of entertainment and the industry it supports and are witnessing the consequences of the work we have done as we set about changing the world.

You Oughta be in Pictures......

2006-11-26T17:49:00.000+11:00

This week I had the privilege of appearing on the cover of respected Australian advertising industry publication, Adnews in an article entitled "Lord's Digital Lair." They don't publish these features on the website, so the only place to read it is in the 17th November issue.

This article talks about Hyro and how we are in the process of bringing "geeks and creatives" together to create our Digital Services offering. I thought the journo, Paul McNamara did a great job of filtering the empassioned ramblings of a digital services zealot down into a concise summary of what it is that we are doing at Hyro and why we are in a great position to respond to the needs of our clients.

One of the points the article does pick up on, is one that you will be hearing more and more from me in coming months - the commercial risks of poorly executed digital services.

There is no denying that the effects of the structural changes going on in advertising and marketing are starting to bite. In the last week I have heard of two traditional ad agencies who have announced with a flurry that they have "made an important hire" who will "head up our new digital arm" and a terrifying chill ran down my spine.

My concerns come from two fronts; the first is that in a vain attempt to delay the effects of the shift to digital services, agencies will attempt to trivialise the digital channels by trying to convice their clients that shiny Flash animations and banner ads constitute a digital services strategy. Even scarier is that they will gain a sense of the commercial significance of the digital channels, and the need to integrate the commerce with the communciation, and will actually try to do it themselves.

This stuff is complex and should be left to the experts.

In building Hyro, we are treating each of ingredients required for successful digital services delivery with the respect they deserve. Each of the teams we bring together to service our clients (the "geeks and creatives" plus the consultants, project managers, identity specialists, security professionals, experience and usability professionals, campaign experts and more) are well established units, part of a team that has been building digital solutions for more than a decade.

We are dealing with significant business systems which have material commercial considerations. Yes - the creative execution is absolutely critical to the success of our clients' communication and marketing objectives, but so to is the ability to take the order, service the customer, bank the cash. Not getting it right - building solutions which do not perform consistently, are not fully secure, are not tightly integrated to the creative, are not robust - has very serious consequences. I don't think it will be too long before we see an agency sued for lost revenue or other damages because the system they delivered was hacked, or because the ordering system fell over, or because the privacy legislation was breached.....

So my word of advice to the agencies - don't rush into this. We have been "getting ready" for more than a decade. The organistional knowledge and experience that comes from a long term team who have worked on more than 2,500 projects is NOT something you can recreate by throwing money and people into a room. Be aware that the risks that you are dealing with are not just yours - they are also your clients'. By asking them to commit to your "new digital arm" you will asking them to gamble on you getting it right......

When we set out actively market our Digital Services offering, we did it because we are ready. Ready to do everything required to deliver the communications, marketing, customer service and commercial requirements of our clients.... and ready to change the world.

WOW .... Wireless which changes everything ....

2006-11-19T20:52:00.000+11:00

We had the pleasure of spending a big chunk of the weekend in the company of our good friends G&S at their beach house across the bay from Adelaide. Outside of the fact that the beach house is just SENSATIONAL (one of the most beautiful homes I have had the pleasure of visiting) I also got a little taste of the future.

This beach house is located 50m from a gorgeous beach on the Great Southern Ocean and has great views all the ways to Adelaide. It is dirt roads in and out and there are maybe 25 buildings in the community - no shops, so schools, nothing.

My job requires me to work some unpredictable hours at the moment (some might say it is a little sad, being on the beach with a laptop, but we ARE building a world-class company here) so armed with my laptop and my new Telstra NextG Data Card I took a few minutes to send an email.

The screen shot to the right shows the reported data speed from this card, from this connection - a WHOPPING 1.8Mb/s down and 203kb/s up..... absolutely plenty of bandwidth for most of the things I need to be able to do when working on my laptop.

I haven't devoted very much of this blog to talking about specific products and services, but I have to say that I am very impressed with the NextG network. The mobile broadband is exceptional; stable, fast and very easy to use and I find it is a fabulous business tool. Well done Telstra and their partners!

(I have to confess that we do some great work for Telstra, specifically for the NextG mobile platform, but this does not bias my opinions here - this is a very good quality service!).

This does change everything. Areas which were previously "remote" in terms of decent, commercial grade bandwidth are becoming increasingly connected. Even more significantly, the constraint we have had on delivering rich media digital services off the "tethered network" are now VERY possible. Think animated billboards, mobile advertising, rich-media point of sale and more.

Hang on to your hats as we will now see the rate of change for communications, advertising and entertainment step up another notch .... the thing I really love about my job (and yes it is that we get to change the world) is that our team are the No.1 team in Australia to help our corporate and government clients to make the most of this exciting accelerated change.....

So .... where do YOU want to work today?

2006-10-31T11:23:00.000+11:00

One of my esteemed colleagues pointed me to an article in Computerworld this week which gleefully describes that Microsoft is currently seeking to hire about 50 people in Australia and New Zealand (and then goes on to describe how they go about this, who they are looking for and at what stage in the process the chip is inserted into the brain…. ). On reading this I couldn’t help but draw comparisons with the work that we are doing at Hyro on team building and growth.

Right now at Hyro, we have about 25 positions available across our Australian operations in a wide variety of roles. All of these positions are there for reasons of growth, both current and future – as we have said a few times in the market announcements we have made, most of our clients are buying more of our digital services offerings and our reputation is bringing more clients. A great position to be in.

I do think that it is interesting that a little (albeit ASX Listed) company of 150 people in Australia and New Zealand and 250 people world wide, is recruiting half as many people in our market as the biggest software company in the world!

In looking at the comparisons between Hyro and Microsoft, there are many similarities – we are also pretty strict about “who gets in,” how we test for skills, etc – but there are some big differences (as far as I can tell from this article). I think the biggest of these differences is in the basis of the relationship between Hyro and the team, something which we are very focussed on and constantly work at to improve.

As I constantly point out, in order to attract, retain and develop the very best team we can (this is an important part of our promise to our clients) we can’t think of our relationship with our people in terms of the old “master/servant” relationship. Today, every single one of our team is a highly skilled, highly employable, capable professional and we MUST consider ourselves to be COMPETING for the privilege of having those people build their careers in our company.

So what will make them work for Hyro instead of working somewhere else? Well, here is my 5 minute checklist (in no particular order):

Quality of the Work – everybody wants to work on projects and with clients that are innovative, challenging and interesting. Hyro has worked hard to be at the forefront of the constantly evolving, exciting and (dare I say it) sexy world of the Digital Services industry (and we aren’t finished yet) and so the people who are in our team and join our team can be assured that they will to work on some interesting and transformational projects.
Quality of the Team – it is only natural that team members expect to work with others of equal or higher skill and experience as themselves. People want to know that when they take on complex, challenging tasks (which may have an impact on their professional reputation) that they are part of a crack team that will deliver the right results. You have to be strong in only taking on people who will add to the team and be equally strong in removing those people who don’t prove up to the standards required by the team. (Proof? This year we have increased our total headcount by 20, but have actually taken on 40 new employees)
Company Culture – where you work must have values that are in line with yours. We maintain some very strong values in our company – honesty, trust, teamwork, fun, commitment to be the best. If your people cannot see their values within your company, then the relationship will ultimately fracture. The team must be PROUD of where they work and the team they are a part of.
Reward – this is not just about salary. The people today all want to earn an income and build value and so expect to see that their relationship with their employer will provide a mechanism to create wealth. This is a huge advantage of being a listed company as we can offer equity participation schemes which are real – they are based on equity in a publicly listed company, so it can be delivered, valued, traded. (Proof? We have some people in the company who were invited into our Employee Performance Options Program when the share price was 6 cents and now, less than a year later, it is around 20 cents – a result of the hard work of the whole team. It is only right that those who were a part of building the success have an opportunity to share in it).
Flexibility – this is the toughest one for many big companies. In this day and age, many people do not live to work and you need to be able to accommodate the fact that priorities are different and may change from time to time. The differences required range from people with different work patterns (some people AREN’T “Morning People” and so want to work from 10.00 am) or need to work four days a week. The relationship between employer and employee must be a partnership and that implies a mutual obligation which must be respected. (Proof? We are implementing a new program called the Hyro Lifestyle Employment Scheme which, in part, provides a framework for this flexibility.)

I know that in writing this particular blog, I have started to chip at the tip of the iceberg (are there any of those left any more?) and it is hard to say in 600 words what has been, and will continue to be, one of the most complex areas of managing a business today – this is for those experienced and important HR professionals out there. What I can say (and here I am being repetitive again) is that you MUST think DIFFERENTLY about the relationship you have with your people .... particularly if you expect those people to go out there and change the world.

Fried Frogs and Chunky Monkey Muggings....

2006-10-23T08:53:00.000+10:00

I am currently making one of my Quarterly Review trips to Hyro Thailand and have had few experiences this trip which will I am sure I will remember. I don't usually get a lot of time on these trips and am usually in and out within a week, but this time I have had a couple of diversions from the usual business focus.

Last Thursday I had the arduous task of entertaining some important business contacts at the Thai Country Club, a VERY nice golf course about 45 minutes out of central Bangkok, soon to host the Volvo Masters (Tiger Woods has a permanent locker at the course .... I wonder what he keeps in there).

After a less than impressive round (I did manage to shoot three pars in street shoes with borrowed clubs about 2 inches too short for me) it was back to the club house for "refreshments" and discussion. While the talk soon turned to business opportunities in Thailand and near shore markets, some food was ordered and I enjoyed some of the nicest "quail" I have had for a long time .... apparently this was better described as "pond quail" and I found out after about my fourth mini-drumstick that I had just experienced my first fried frogs leg.... and it was pretty good.

The second experience was that one of my colleagues celebrated her wedding on the weekend, a wonderful event held at the family home in the nearby town of Petchburi (about 120 Kms South West of Bangkok). Although the event started at 6.30 am with a parade to take the groom from the local temple to the family home (which meant a 4.00 am start from Bangkok!) it was a lovely day with a great combination of involvement of family and friends in the celebration and formal ceremonies to complete the marriage. It was a privilege and a pleasure to be invited.

On the drive back, we made a detour to the Khao Ban Dai It Temple just outside of Petchburi. This is the smaller of a couple of temples which have been built into limestone caves and they are just beautiful. The pinpoints of light coming through holes in the ceiling to strike gold covered Buddha statues have a very regal and stirring effect.. these are special places of very high importance to the people.

One of the more interesting features of this temple is that the resident Monks have taken to caring for the local monkeys. Visitors are "encouraged" to buy food for the monkeys from the temple nuns ... a little money spinner to keep the temple running no doubt. Trouble is that food for the monkeys is served in the same white plastic bags as any food for people and my friends Alice and Justin decided to grab a mid-morning snack of cooked bananas from the nuns. It only took about five minutes before Alice came under the watchful eye of the fattest, nastiest looking monkey in the temple - apparently he knew about fried banana and knew that it was good and in a move of which any action hero would be jealous, he staged a guerilla strike and tore the bag from Alice's hand .... a full blown Monkey Mugging which brought a smile to the faces of a couple of nearby monks and which, no doubt, has developed a new phobia for Alice.

So what are the "insights" from all of this .... well, the first is that the "coup" here in Thailand a little over a month ago has had little effect on the people and commerce of Thailand. All signs of business and day to day life are back to normal and some may say a little more positive.... Thailand is moving ahead.

The second is that when you get to Thailand, make an effort to get out of Bangkok ... there is so much to see. This is an old country with a lot of history and many things you won't see in other places From the pleasure of driving through the rice paddies on either side, to seeing some of the temples, beaches, mountains and more, to the sport and adventure of braving Bangkok traffic on the way back into town, you will really enjoy the experience.

Now .... more work to be done ... since we are still changing the world.

Goo-Tube???

2006-10-13T09:25:00.000+10:00

I love this digital services industry ….. in the time that it has taken for most major corporations to get through a “strategic planning cycle” we have seen a new company be born, one of the worlds top entertainment destinations created and the business then sold for US$1.65 billion (that’s A$2.215 billion at today’s exchange rate). Of course, I am talking about You Tube – a site which relies on mankind’s voyeuristic inclination – and clearly MILLIONS of people want to either view or be viewed.

This thing is a juggernaut of consumer generated (and sometimes consumer purloined) content. Everywhere I look for information about the growth, use and take up of You Tube, the story is the same. Our friends at Neilsen/Netratings have reported that traffic to You Tube grew by 297% in the first half of 2006. In the WEEK of 16th July 2006, more than 12,000,000 people visited the site and stayed on average 28 minutes (up from 17 minutes a visit six months prior) and page views are through the roof. These people (20% more likely to be men) are visiting more often, spending more time and viewing much more content. The ability to “build your own entertainment” is a very strong proposition for consumers and the You Tube story shows this to be the case.

So what doe this deal mean? It means that Google has pulled another coup (like MySpace). You can spend a lot of time analysing the complex valuation dynamics of the estimated net present value of the future income streams based on a wide range of variables… or you can just “get it” – GOOGLE GOES WHERE THE EYEBALLS ARE.

In simple terms, YouTube is one of the internet’s most visited sites, and so is MySpace and so is Google – I tried to quickly find some reliable stats for October, but the traffic to these three sites (including their mail services) now seems to be over 10% of all internet traffic. That is a LOT of eyeballs!

Even more interesting is the flow of traffic between these sites. MySpace is YouTube’s most important source for traffic, with internet traffic monitor Hitwise reporting that MySpace has accounted for 16.2% of YouTube’s upstream traffic. Given that Google has just prepaid US$900m for search advertising on MySpace, that is traffic that Google would have been happier to see stay on MySpace. Google has bought more of this “traffic loop” giving them more penetration into the flow of internet traffic.

Finally, You Tube has been killing Google Video in the video search stakes – the graph at left from our friends at Hitwise highlights by just how much. Given that we all expect to see some big increases in video search as bandwith increases and rich media devices become more prolific, this investment gives them an amazing head start in this race.

IMAGE SOURCE: Hitwise Pty Limited - http://weblogs.hitwise.com/leeann-prescott/2006/10/google_youtube_rumor_-_hitwise.html

I love this stuff... because we are changing the world!

More MMAgic......

2006-10-09T14:33:00.000+10:00

WE WON!!!!!

www.hyro.com

Thanks to our clients for their support and the team for doing a great job.!!

Trend-surfing .... the great Digital Wave!

2006-09-18T19:41:00.000+10:00

I picked up an article in the Australian Financial Review and AdNews (you need subscriptions to both to access these articles online) quoting research from the Commercial Economic Advisory Service of Australia ("CEASA") showing the current trends in Online Advertising. These statistics are expressed in terms of share of total advertising spend.

It is pretty easy to get carried away in detailed analysis of these statistics, but I see three very interesting trends.

Despite media rhetoric to the contrary, the share of advertising spend represented by newspapers and TV is decreasing (the CEASA report as reported in the AFR goes on to say that spending in thse categories did increase in nominal terms, but the share of spend is increasing at a rate less than inflation).
Clearly, the FASTEST growing category is Online Advertising (the think green line in this chart). Note in this case, the share of ad spend is increasing at an INCREASING rate.
Online Advertising is now EQUAL in terms of total spend to radio advertising.

These statistics are, for me, one of the most telling indicators of the change we are experiencing in the Digital Services space. REAL money is moving into this category and it is coming at the expense of the traditional channels which have dominated marketing and advertising for the last half century and the century before that.

This presents interesting challenges for marketers... according to these trends, you now need to allocate AT LEAST 9% of your advertising expenditure to Digital Channels and, according to recent research done for eMitch by Roy Morgan Research, you will need to increase this to 21% over the coming twelve months.... and don't be scared to ask for help, there are some of us out there who have been doing this stuff long enough to help you be successful as you move your spend online.

This is why I love my job.... we ARE changing the world.

The Hyro team.....MMAgic!!!

2006-09-06T17:57:00.000+10:00

Another fleeting post, but a good one!

The Hyro Team have just been advised that we have become finalists in TWO categories in the 2006 Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) Mobile Marketing Awards ('MMAs'). This is outstanding!!

Hyro has been nominated alongside our clients Telstra for the work we did together to bring Australians the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games via their 3G mobiles and with RPM for the mobile CRM work we have together there. The team have done an outstanding job and produced a great result for our clients - well done and I am proud of you all.

Thanks to B&T ....

2006-08-24T16:54:00.000+10:00

I received an invitation to submit an opinion piece on the recent chain of events surrounding the News Corp, MySpace, Google transactions.

You can read this here.

Thanks to the B & T team for their offer and their support for this first contribution.

There is no such thing as a free lunch....

2006-08-13T14:24:00.000+10:00

I have been reminded over the last few weeks that one needs to be very careful of "experts" who are clearly out of their depth - these are dangerous people and they must be stopped!

I was an interested bystander to a conversation between one of my clients at their very swisho. shiny ad-agency. Both regular readers will know that one of my pet hates is the way some of these agencies are rushing to create "online teams" to respond to the changes that are happening in that industry (see various other rants on this front). As I keep saying, this stuff is complex and you cannot merely create a capacity overnight by sticking a bunch of people in a barn and adding an 'i' or an 'e' to your agency name.

In this case, the agency told our client that loading an online version of a TVC onto YouTube was a great, "free" way to kick off a viral campaign. When challenged that the perception that "YouTube was free" might not be the way things really were, the agency whiz-kid became quite agitated and suggested that we didn't really know what we were talking about. Please, my friend - defer to the Terms and Conditions and read the words carefully (they are in English and the sentences aren't too long, so you should be OK). The site is free for personal use.

In response to this, Whiz-kid rebutted that "Nike and Audi did it" and that "we do it for lots of our clients." Sorry to rattle your reality my wonderful whiz-kid friend - these companies PAID to put their ads up.

So what is the issue? The issue here is twofold - the first is that this agency representative was blindly and naively instructing his client to use a website in fairly obvious breach of the terms and conditions. He even went as far as to suggest that there could be ways to "beat the system" by "having a friend load the content" and "not including any links to the client websites." Bush lawyering at best - professional negligence at worst.

The second issue is that this guys is holding himself out to be an EXPERT and no doubt is charging accordingly, yet basic principles of business, commercial risk management and contracts appear to evade him. It is time for these fringe pretenders jumping a bit too late onto the digital services industry bandwagon to wake up to themselves. If commercial considerations don't drive you to make sure that you actually know how to do what it is that you offer your clients, then maybe respect for your clients will.

Finally - and a genuine question - do these agencies carry decent professional indemity insurance? Who is going to foot the bill when a client unwittingly follows this flawed advice, loads their content onto a site like YouTube, has it downloaded by 50,000,000 people around the world (most of whom probably aren't in their serviceable market) and then receives an invoice (or letter of demand) from the site owner for 10 cent (or even one cent) per view? THIS IS HOW THESE SITES ARE GOING TO MAKE MONEY - understand this.

At Hyro, we think about this stuff. This digital services business is not just about the creative and technical elements - it is about the business of the digital economy (and that include the contracts, deals and business of the digital world). You have to understand this stuff and have systems and processes in place to consider it all ........ especially if you are going to change the world.

Good people are great to find ....

2006-08-06T20:02:00.000+10:00

We have a great four or five weeks on the recruitment front. We implemented a new recruitment process within Australia and New Zealand, and created some internal service levels; resumes must be reviewed within 24 hours of receipt and suitable candidates interviewed within 3 business days. And what an impact this has had.

In July, we hired 21 new people in Australia and New Zealand, right across the business. On seeing some of the resumes, these are outstanding people, with great experience and a lot to add to our business. When I think about the existing team and what these new people can bring ... WOW!! Hyro is really hitting its straps!!

I think some of the success in attracting good quality resumes can be attributed to the progress the whole Hyro team is making. We are getting a reputation in our market for good quality work and a strong commitment to our clients and I think this helps to attract the right people.

The process is continuing, so if either of you dear readers thinks you have something to add to Hyro, please give us a call! Who knows, you could find yourself helping to change the world....

The Emergence of Convergence....

2006-07-30T19:55:00.000+10:00

Looking at the Microsoft web site and I noticed that Microsoft has launched a range of webcams and are marketing them as digital communication devices. This has come hot on the heels of the lanch of the new Windows Live Messenger - the replacement for MSN Messenger which to my mind is Microsoft's response to Skype (we'll see how that goes, but the theory seems right).

This observation comes in the same week that I took delivery of a new XBox360 - the Microsoft second generation games console and media device. It was this second reason that drove me to acquire one as I am in the throws of setting up a home media network (the XBox360 will act as a terminal to access any digital content stream on either a Media Centre PC or a WindowsXP machine - apparently). It is an impressive piece of technology.... the integration of the networking technology and the fact that the profile links to my MSN ID is impressive. It is fine to talk about this concept of multi-channel access to consumers, but this is the concept in action.

The link between a webcam for Windows Live Messenger and my XBox360 comes from my sense that we are watching a gradual piecing together of a generational shift in communications, media and entertainment -and the true convergence of the three. Behind the scenes, companies like Microsoft, Sony and others are working hard to build an internet based "backbone" of profile services and information designed to facilitate this convergence. My MSN profile powers the preferences for my XBox Live account. My communications - now voice, video and email - are now linked to an account through which I can consume content and entertainment. I can currently buy games online through XBox Live and I am sure that movies, music and other content is not far away (especially given the announcement of the Microsoft ZUNE over the last couple of weeks - their much vaunted "iPod Killer") and the fact that Windows Vista is purporting to even better support for rich-media content. This is one vendors take on how to bring all of these things together, but it is a vendor who has started to deliver some real, workking products to the market.

So ... what's the point? The point is that the notion of convergence is very quickly becoming a reality. By integrating all of these functions, applications and content at the "software" layer, the vendors are changing the playing field. A telco no longer provides the capacity to make phone calls (let alone video calls), I no longer need to visit a retailer to buy a game, I don't need to go to a video store to get a movie and I buy my music by the song, not by the album. The usual gumpf about the "shift in the balance of power" would fit here, but for me, it is the signficance of all of this coming together into a ubiquitously accessible "user profile" which is the real story. The digital channels are narrowing their focus - it is all about ME (well all the "MEs connected to the internet)!

For marketers and providers of content and services to consumers, it is time for a wake up call - get your head around the "real convergence" - the convergence of content, services, profiling, marketing, information, resources, entertainment - EVERYTHING in a user-centric model. Clever marketers are not jumping onto the YouTube bandwagon now and hoping to be cool (that is Soooooooo last month), nor are they racing to generate podcasts of mediocre, self-indulgent, low-value promotional waffle. They are working hard to understand what consumers want from a converged model and how to reach them in this environment.

Our team are working on some very cool ideas in this space, albeit that getting the clients to be brave enough to reach into the new market opportunity. We are learning (and applying) the important principles of "shared value" and "user defined services" and a whole bunch more. Some of these things are very clever abd I am sure will deliver some significant innovation to our clients... but then, the team are working pretty hard to change the world!!

Not alone out there......

2006-07-24T11:43:00.000+10:00

I just saw Dave Clutterbuck's latest opinion column for AdNews and I have to say that I AGREE!!

From what I can see the Big Idea is like the flash of light from a magician’s wand – Divert the attention away from what is really going on while you work furiously to pull a rabbit out of the hat (which NO ONE was expecting)...... sure.....

Is the industry pursuit of the Big Idea really a tacit admission that given the volatile and variable state of the advertising industry these days that the veneer of “value” that some of the agencies used to provide in a structured, oligopolised “old world adland” is starting to wear through. Is it that some of those agencies that have always held themselves out to be “oh so creative” have actually been found wanting in a market where the old rules no longer apply and you actually have to be…. dare I say it…. creative?

I sit in amazement as the industry reacts to change, as Dave rightly says, with a rush to becoming Experts In Everything ("EiE" - I've created a new TLA!!!) – the perspective I see is that the integrated agency of the future is going to be switched on, plugged in, juiced up and able to deal with all the marketing needs of the cyber-generation*. Trouble is, it is a little harder than that and the industry had better wake up.

There is a potential credibility storm brewing as agencies race to enter the digital services markets – purporting to their clients that they can handle all things online. This naiveté is fostered by the assumption that the internet (and increasingly mobiles) is a creative medium and so surely must be the domain of the ad agency, but the real concern is that this is a genuine collision of marketing and technology and it is all a little harder than that.

You can integrate the offer / message with the ability to act on the offer / message which means that commerce is going on – and commerce means money is changing hands and money changing hands means that there is real business risk, first hand. Campaigns are connected to business systems and this creates an opportunity for the bad guys out there… and agencies aren’t generally equipped to deal with this.

There are stories out there even today; the agency who launched a campaign for a FINANCIAL INSTITUTION earlier this year which was hacked in under an hour. No money was stolen but surely such a compromise cuts to the very core of the FI’s value proposition – security, safety and trust. (by the way, the creative was spectacular….) We see tonnes of executions which don’t comply with the privacy laws (those pesky laws), aren’t accessible and are just badly designed. I have first hand experience of an agency supplying creative for an online campaign which was 76MB (please upload this for us), designed for an Apple Mac super screen (over 1900 pixels wide) and with no navigation in or out…. Just amateur really. It takes years to develop the skills and capability in this space and throwing money at a room full of geeks won’t achieve any shortcuts.

So the purpose of this rant – in these times of change, PLEASE Agency Colleagues, divert your attentions to understanding the science and structure of marketing in the new world and avoid the rush to EiE … there are plenty of very clever SPECIALIST companies out there… get to know and love them!!

* Cyber everything is a term which must be due for re-propogation.
PS> I am thinking that to take on this trend I should start an agency called CyberEiE.com ... see if I can capture EVERY buzz-word....

You ROCK my world!! (Ode to a great team)

2006-07-23T20:29:00.000+10:00

A busy week this week with a round of investor presentations in Melbourne and Sydney and the announcement of our interim half yearly results (audited results will come out in a couple of weeks) and it has been a real pleasure.

The company (Hyro) has been working through a plan we set out a little over a year ago. As I explained in our presentations, there were three things we had to do; clear the decks of the history we inherited when we joined Hyro, set the company onto a commercial footing (which means operating profitably) and then pt everything into place to make the most of the opportunity ahead of us.

I am pleased to say (and it is in the announcements) that the team have achieved everything we set out to do - on time and a little ahead of expectations. The company has posted an operating profit for the second quarter (which has taken us into an operating profit for the half) and all of the tactical and strategic things we have had to do have been done, on time.

There aren't any great secrets to this; we have a wonderful team of people who have kept their heads down, their minds on the task and have not, at any stage done anything other than concentrate on doing the very best they can for our clients - these people are amazing!

It is a little humbling - when you can see what this team has been able to do from a starting position well behind where you would like to be and with one hand tied behind their backs thanks to the history they inherited, I can only imagine what they can do now that all the ingredients for success are in place.

And the great thing? At the same time as building the momentum for success, the Hyro team will be changing the world.....

Interesting times ahead.....

2006-07-09T17:03:00.000+10:00

It has been a while since the last post - I'll put it down to a very busy end of financial year, but truth be known, I think the "busy-ness" of the business is only linked in part to the time of year.

I have picked up some publications from a couple of different sectors (advertising, IT, marketing, government and even the magazine which comes in the weekend newspapers) and the news all round is the same - the internet is important, growing and taking corporate and government marketing expenditure and investment funds away from traditional activities.

I saw a statistic in AdNews this week which stated that in the UK, internet advertising will pass MAINSTREAM NEWSPAPERS for the first time this year; 13.3% of marketing spend compared to 13.2% for newspapers - a very significant milestone for our industry.

For us, this is manifesting itself in the increasing demand and increasing "quality of opportunities" we are seeing. Not only are we being asked to respond to more proposals, but the projects are better funded, better developed and more significant than they have been at any time in our recent past. This is getting serious.

The time of year is significant in one respect - the change-over of budget years. In 2005/06, most corporations and governments in our markets were "caught by surprise" and underestimated the significance that online channels would achieve over the last 12 months - most projects were funded from "borrowed funds" from other projects or budget fund. With the passing of th 1st of July, corporate budgets have now been reset and most corporations have allocated explicit funds to digital projects, specifically in the areas on mobile and internet activities.

So... the gun has gone off .... we have spent nearly a dozen years building capability to respond to the opportunity we have in front of us right now. .... now we get to enjoy the challenge, effort and reward of getting to change the world ....

Brief observation ....

2006-06-14T09:45:00.000+10:00

One of the Hyro Team, Chris, was presenting at the MobileTV Forum held in Sydney yesterday and is chairing a range of sessions today. As interesting as the range of topics covered by Chris and by others (including the impact of "Shift-TV" and the growing importance of mobile devices in servicing this trend) was the range of people attending.

Representatives from a diverse set of organisations including the free-to-air networks, the telcos, the content companies, the production companies, services companies, technology companies.... you name it, they were there.

This is a game which is really starting to capture the attentions and imaginations of the market in this region .... interest and investment in the space is ramping up and it is an area of the market to keep an eye on ...... so "stay tuned."

I want my MMTV*......

2006-05-29T15:49:00.000+10:00

Interesting news today that Microsoft is apparently in negotiations to buy a mobile marketing company in Boston, making this second major new channel marketing acquisition by Microsoft in a little under a month.

One has to think about the strategic and commercial thinking behind these acquisitions (which is pretty obviously about moving up and down the value chain for digital services) but even more importantly, one has to think about why now….. and why are Microsoft buying new-world companies and not bothering with the traditional advertising agencies?

The “why now” question is a fairly significant one since Microsoft has been in the internet space for about 75% of the time that the internet has been mainstream (who out there is old enough to remember the exciting and visionary times of On Australia and the Microsoft Network!!) and certainly has the cash to have acted at any time. My view (DELETED) is that (DELETED) we have arrived at one of those pivotal points in the evolution of the online market; the point at which the various factors which will create a sustainable new market for digital content and services have converged. These factors are:

The network works – and to make it even better, there are a couple of variations of networks which work. The internet is fast, reliable, easy and very widely spread and mobile networks are catching up
The technology works – the things that used to be complex about using the internet have mostly gone away – the experience has gone from being one for technologists and enthusiasts to being one for the mainstream consumer and that has brought a lot more users!
More devices and more digital channels – the internet is no longer restricted to a computer. You can access the internet through more and more devices such as media centre PCs, mobile phones, PDAs, games consoles and devices (like Xbox, PSP and Nintentdo Wii), and new ultraportable computing devices like those produced through the Origami Project. The internet is going to be EVERYWHERE.
And the people (and the ad budgets) are coming ….. there are now supposed to be more than a billion internet users worldwide!!

These changes are affecting the way we source, consume and now distribute entertainment (and therefore advertising) and Microsoft has identified that the time is right, very right, to gain a strategic foothold in this space.

So …. Why aren’t they buying the advertising agencies? Well, this isn’t an advertising problem – it is more of a channels / content / services / engagement problem. The challenge now is about finding ways to entice consumers to engage with your brand / company / service and then giving them the channels and tools to be able to use it. It is a new way of thinking about the whole marketing / communications / engagement process and in the main, the mainstream ad agencies aren’t positioned to take advantage of this (but thankfully dedicated Digital Services Companies are#).

Time for some new thinking folks …. The ground is shifting under the feet of the large agencies and from our experience, many of them just aren’t adapting, changing and evolving fast enough.

And back to the MMTV – why do I want it? Because it makes sense. The future of advertising is individual, customised, targeted, available and digital and that’s an exciting world for all marketers, brand owners and for those of us who support them.

As I keep saying …. I really love what we do because we get to change the world.

* Microsoft Mobile TV
# Another blatant Hyro plug but hey, I work there and I am really excited about what we are doing!

A distant rumble becomes a LOUD ROAR....

2006-05-24T08:46:00.000+10:00

I have written a couple of times about some of the fundamental changes going on in the advertising market, some of which are quite structural - they affect the foundations of how marketing messages are going to be distributed from this day hence.

An article today, picked up as a snippet in the Australian Financial Review and covered in more detail in some US news publications such as the LA Times Business Section tells of the announcement of video advertising from Google.

It seems like a small announcement, but this is a VERY BIG THING. Google have created a "utility grade infrastructure" which will allow brand marketers to distribute rich media, video and animation advertising content for targeted distribution via popular internet sites. BIG BRAND MARKETERS TAKE HEED - you can now DIRECTLY TARGET your TVCs to the consumers you want to reach by placing your ads on others' websites..... but it gets even better.

This is the internet folks, we can enhance the content you present with highly functional, effective capability to ensure that consumers not only SEE the offer they are presented, but they will also have the capacity ACT ON THE OFFER... it is like a TVC but one that actually works!! It's time to stop talking to old fashioned advertising agencies and to start talking to the specialist Digital Services Companies like Hyro.... (sorry for the blatant plug, but this is what we have been building for more than a dozen years!)

I really do love this stuff that we do - because we are changing the world!

Where oh where has my little blog gone???

2006-04-27T17:44:00.000+10:00

A brief hiatus on the blogging front as I took a couple of weeks of leave to enjoy the sun and sand of Koh Samui after a week of work in Thailand (great team there doing great things for the company!). So apologies to both readers for the weeks of absence but I can assure you that the infusion of sun, sand and Singha should ensure even more fruitful postings.....

The trip to Thailand was a great reminder of the way the internet is changing the world - sitting in an internet cafe about 50m from the beach in Koh Samui lodging my footytips over a 1Mb connection shows just how far this has come. The world is very small and your competitors are everywhere.... some of the lucky ones are sitting on sun-drenched beaches while competing in your market!

Back to work and things are busy.... got to get the nose to the grindstone ....

People are great .... they do great things.....

2006-04-04T06:43:00.000+10:00

It is a few weeks since the last post, weeks which have been consumed by a whole pile of work on a number of fronts. Our company is very busy right now; we have a lot going on in terms of proposals, projects and the work of running a public company.

While I have had a bit to do myself, I have had a chance to witness pretty closely the great things a motivated and capable team of people can achieve. Over the last few weeks, I have seen our team produce some amazing things - from accountants working through the night to deal with the vagueries of new accounting standards through to some of clever creative, technical and consulting people producing some really world-class things. Our sales people have been producing winning pitches and proposals and our operations people have been working hard to keep the wheels turning and getting things done.

Sometimes it is important to lift our heads out of our own little burrows of focus and look around at the things going on around you..... you will quickly appreciate that people are great - they do GREAT things.....

How to Grapple with "Gapple"

2006-03-13T08:20:00.000+11:00

I had a couple of interesting conversations last week with clients around coming to grips with what's going on in the Digital Services Space. The last couple of weeks have seen some very interesting activities around the world and a little closer to home. We have seen Google come under some pressure to "grow up," the Apple "innovation factory" continue to turn up the heat on music / video publishing and locally we've seen a major Newspaper publisher pay 3/4 of a billion dollars for a Kiwi auction site, just to name a few of the events of the last week or two.

In one of these discussions we were joking around and I suggested that the big challenge for our clients for the next couple of years was working out how to "grapple with the Gapple" - learning to achieve their corporate objectives in a world where major players have caused structural shifts in the way advertising, media and publishing are done. The Gapple (Google - Apple and others like them) world is one where new players, or non-traditional players are either creating new niches for themselves or "eating the lunch" of traditional players in existing markets.

In thinking about this, it has become clear to me what successful businesses will need to do in order to survive and thrive in this new environment. The simplest message for me is that brand owners have REALLY got to start behaving like just that - start behaving like you OWN THE BRAND!

What does this mean? It means that brand owners have had a pretty formulaic run to date - leveraging a brand in traditional media markets has pretty much been about money (with some exceptions of course). With limited distribution channels and a fairly ologopolistic market, the guy with the most bucks buys the most air-time and gets the greatest attention. Essentially brand owners got to "lease the creativity" of the content providers (and in some cases this term is VERY generous) and then hang on for the ride. The brand owners looked for content and channels which were likely to attract their target customers..... a sort of "one step removed" relationship between the brand and the medium....

But what happens in a world of infinite distribution channels and of infinite choice for consumers? Despite network rhetoric to the contrary, consumers with discretionary income (the ones ALL brand owners want) are switching to the new channels - you ARE going to reach them through search strategies and integration to downloaded content and all of the other opportunities the new Digital Services world brings.

So the first step in winning in this environment? Take OWNERSHIP of your brand - it is time for brand owners to start thinking about greater control of the content, services and messages that you associate with your brands and to look for strategies which get out of being that "one step removed" from your customers. You can now publish, broadcast and distribute your own content - the concept of Brand Owners as Broadcasters is an important strategy for 2006 and beyond. You can create direct, ongoing and high-value relationships with individual customers as the foundation of your marketing strategies....as my colleague Megan Hales say, you can "entertain to engage" and create multi-iteration points of commuication with your customers. You can take CONTROL!

This isn't about the technology any more (but good technology well implemented is at the core of success in this new age) - it is about integrated strategies which continue to evolve and develop as you learn more and determine how to get more out of the channels....

Our company is right in the middle of all this change. Our extraordinary team is really getting some momentum and we are seeing the results of our innovation for our clients. Rich media content, mobile video (for the Commonwealth Games for Telstra - VERY COOL!), adver-gaming and other integrated strategies using Digital Services are proving up for us a lot of the theory, and providing opportunities to learn and evolve those theories even more...... it is very exciting times ....

I really do love this stuff, because we ARE changing the world.... so it is time to Grapple with the Gapple and embrace this outstanding opportunity!

Mobiles, Mobiles Everywhere and not a drop to drink ....

2006-02-22T18:47:00.000+11:00

A quick post again today as things at work are pretty busy - lots of time being spent working with the team on client proposals and sales activities as the market continues to show the momentum we've enjoyed over the last six months.... some sleep would be good!

One of the things I did get to do in the last couple of days was to attend the AIMIA Lunchtime Forum on Mobile TV in Sydney. This was moderated by one of my colleagues, Chris Flintoft (recent father and all round mobile & broadcast guru) and so it was a chance to get some market context around some of the things we are doing for our clients in the Mobile & Broadcast space.

I guess my first impression was of the number of people there... I'm not much good at crowd estimation but if you told me there were 200 people there, I wouldn't have trouble believing it. The spread of the crowd was interesting as well; from shiny new start-ups to the big media /searchportal / telco players and all the hangers on (I think recruiters provide a REALLY valuable service..... no, really, I do.....) - the crowd was pretty diverse.

My second impression was of the "buzz." I haven't seen this sort of energy in a market segment since about 1998 when all things internet were possible and the world was your oyster. This time around the talk was of "content plays" and "licensing deals" and "subscription models".... stuff I'd heard before but this time it is "personalised and profiled" straight to the hands of the user. I must admit that a couple of people I spoke to said that this sounded a little bit like history repeating itself, but I think that to make that association is to ignore some fundamental truisms of the time we are in right now.

Ten years on since the start of the dot.com boom we know a lot more and things are different.

We now know that not every business case is going to stack up and therefore not every business plan deserves investment. Businesses that aren't in their "natural place" in the market aren't going to survive and trying to "change the paradigm" isn't enough to ensure success. I don't want to dampen the enthusiam of the start-ups there yesterday, but I strongly suggest that they take the time to think about this in the context of their vision for their company - if what you are doing is not in its "natural place in the market" then act now and avoid the pain and cost of finding out the hard way.

We now know that anything that happens in the mobile space needs to be a part of a diverse, multi-channel strategy. The internet needs to link to the mobile to the call centre to the shop counter to the operations of the business - Mobiles are a part of the overall Digital Services Strategy for any company - they aren't the whole strategy, so to the brand owners, content owners and investors, ignore offers which don't present this comprehensive view.

We know that we've come a long way in terms of monetising and commercialising digital services, but also that business models tend to be driven by the market and no one player. The business models for mobile services, mobile TV, content and licensing have a few more rounds to go, but this time around we actually do have the systems, platforms and capability to support the business models which will survive - there IS money in mobiles provided you understand the capacity for sustainable commercialisation for your particular business and implement your programs accordingly.

Finally, I think that this time around we are all a little more seasoned and a little more commercial. Funky content and a great idea are great, as long as they earn more than they cost.... today. What IS exciting and deserves attention though is an integrated, multi-channel digital services play which leverages the very best that mobile content and services can provide... get it right and this stuff can deliver some outstanding results.... and of course you can call the team at Hyro to help!!

It was good to spend some time at this forum ... it reminds me how far we have come and how much potential there is in what we do...... It also reminds me that we have already changed the world.... and we have really only just begun.

Creating a truly global company.....

2006-02-12T17:48:00.000+11:00

I tend not to be too much of a business "fad-ist" and tend to think that managers who latch onto the latest business buzzwords and trends in lieu of well constructed strategy are taking amateurish short-cuts and owe a little more to their teams, their customers and their shareholders.

A manager in this day and age is, of course inundated with a torrent of management writings, data and analytical tools, so the challenge is to filter through these things to find the materials that provide value and learning. The truth is that the world is changing so quickly (and has infact changed so much already) that as managers we have an obligation to keep learning, keep adapting and keep responding to opportunity in this new market.

One of the consequences of the modern business environment is that like it or not, we are ALL operating as global companies - it is just that some of us are yet to fully understand what that means and few are in a position to adapt to the realities of modern global business. I cannot profess to know all the answers here, but recent experiences have highlighted some of this new reality.

As I mentioned in my last blog, a week a go I returned from the Hyro office in Thailand, a now regular trip as we build on the capability and achievements of the business there and seek to leverage this for additional benefit for the company as a whole. One of the tasks I enjoyed while I was there was to attend a signing ceremony for the final documentation on an assignment we were awarded (and announced) late in 2005. Now that we have got down to the business of delivery, I got an insight into the global nature of this project, and how our company is adapting to respond to this need.

The project shows a great global collaboration. The client is a Japanese company, setting up a consumer finance business in Thailand. The Program Director is French, but his last assignment was in Latin America. The Systems Architect is Indian, our project manager a Kiwi, the developers are mostly Thais. The technology we are implementing is from Mexico, the client CIO is located in the US (LA), the application team includes people from Mexico, Columbia and Australia - all of these people working mostly out of their home locations and only to descend onto Bangkok when they are needed. This is a truly global project and Hyro is working as a global company to make this all work.

But HOW does it all work? Why is this possible in this day and age? How can we bring all of these resources together from around the world and remain competitive and commercial?

The answer comes from some of the BIG changes that have already happened. The biggest of them all if the arrival of low cost, high speed internet access. In addition to the obvious benefits of allowing us to shift files and things around the world, this technology enables us to leverage a whole raft of real-time collaboration tools - Many of them for free. Voice Over IP ('VOIP') allows real-time voice and video calls for free between all these locations. Messaging and chat applications allow us to keep in constant touch, share files, share workspaces and collaborate. It is not the same as being in the same room, but it is pretty close. The reality is this stuff works! We have a global team delivering a high quality solution for a global client made possible only by the flexibility that these new technologies bring.

There are other factors which make all of this possible (cheap travel, a more mobile workforce and so on) but for me the capability of the technology is the "pebble in the pond" which has kicked off a range of "ripple effects." When you sit and think these things through a little, the consequences are significant. As a company we have greater market reach than the immediate geographic market - we can work for any client anywhere, where ever our reputation reaches, or where ever our clients want to take us. We now have access to a global market for talented people - we can construct teams which allow us to access the best people in the world (luckily we already have a few of these) and bring these people together to create high-impact teams. We can leverage the very best quality, the very best availability and the very best experience and often without it costing any more than it does right now..... some times it is even cheaper......

These concepts, opportunities and challenges are occupying a fair bit of my time right now. Our business is at the stage where we have a good team of people able to commercially adapt to the opportunities ahead, but there is a lot of thinking and planning yet to be done.... and certainly a lot of reading. We can realise a lot of value by operating as a New Global Company - a company based on bringing together the best inputs for our business from anywhere in the world and looking for ways to constantly increase shareholder value by leveraging this global opportunity. The New Global Company will not be made up of many "offices" located in a variety of cities and countries. It will be a flexible, adaptable, technology enabled provider of value for customers, for partners, for our people and for our shareholders.

A good source of insight for me at the moment is The World is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman (referred to me by a friend - thanks Kate!). This thought provoking book provides some insights into the sorts of changes I have only begun to touch on above. You have two choices when you read this book; to see the potential and opportunity of the "flattening world" or to prefer to see a more negative view. Read it and come to your own conclusions....

Some links to find the book:

I cop a lot of ribbing for believing this, but I remain resolute in my position - I DO love what we do, because we DO get to change the world!

Brilliant Bangkok.....

2006-02-05T21:10:00.000+11:00

One of the things which came with the merger with Hyro Limited was a business in Bangkok, Thailand and as a part of my role as COO of Hyro, I have management responsibility for this business. Over the last eight months (yes it is only eight months since we assumed full management control of Hyro) I have now had need to visit Bangkok three times and I have to say that every time I go, I come away more impressed and more excited about the Asian market and specifically about Thailand.

Bangkok didn't fare too well in the "Asian Meltdown" of the late 90s and over the last few years has slowly been rebuilding and now the signs of economic activity are everywhere. Stand in any high-rise office tower and look in any direction and there are building sites everywhere. The public infrastructure is constantly improving and now the SkyTrain and MRT systems have really eased the traffic pressure (still pretty bad, but a lot better than before). There is a new international airport on the way and there is a lot of work being done on the highway / freeway systems. Bangkok is moving ahead .... fast!

Our team in Bangkok are really kicking some goals. The business there faced a few challenges in 2005 as the former Hyro management has made some decisions which de-focused the team and created a bit of chaos (as well as cost a lot of money). It was really pleasing to see the team there winning some great projects and enthusiastically going about completing them. There is a bit of a buzz in the Bangkok office and I am keen to see where we go from here.....

On the down-side, I have made a commitment to myself that I am going to stop flying "third-world airlines." The flight on the way up we bought an economy Qantas ticket but flew a code-share flight with British Airways. My colleague's seat was broken (it was missing a cushion!) and before we took off, he had the pleasure of having about a litre of orange juice poured all over his head. The cabin crew were tired, indifferent and frankly offensive..... I firmly believe that when you get to the stage in your career that the work isn't enjoyable any more, then you should give it up, no matter how over-paid you might be........

What happened at Google?

2006-01-22T15:36:00.000+11:00

A brief post.... Google's stock price dropped 8.3% on Friday in the US and already some of the press are preaching "gloom and doom" about Google's business model. From what I can gather, the sell-off was triggered by news that the US Government has issued a subpoena for certain internet search data logs for reasons of "national security" (give me a break... but that is another topic for another time) and concerns about Google's "reliance on advertising as a business model." It seems that the drop wiped something like US$11 BILLION off the value of Google.

My 2 cents worth - I think that this noise around Google reflects the unfortunate habit of governments and markets seeking to "gain control" of businesses which challenge the establishment and propose to change the way things are done. The Google team are brilliant business people (as are the teams at Yahoo, MSN, AOL and others like them). They understand the way the internet is transforming business and they are making money from it. Furthermore, the close to $10 BILLION that Google expects to earn from online advertising revenues this year has to come from somewhere - and it is the traditional media who are feeling the crunch. These businesses are rolling ... quickly and those established players under threat are now not responding from a position of strength - It might be time to look for other ways to slow the juggernaut and spreading a bit of FUD just might help.

The "reliance on advertising concern" is a real tilt at a windmill - ALL media businesses rely primarliy on advertising and they have done OK... and the "security concerns" that are supposed to "push online users away from search" are also a bit of a stretch.... Face it folks, the game has changed and the traditional media players just have to respond..... buy just getting BETTER at what they do and by adapting to this new competitive terrain.

[end rant]

Everything old is new again.....

2006-01-08T19:47:00.000+11:00

I have to make a small confession ...... I am not as young as I used to be (and some of my friends would say as I think I am). I have been in this commercial internet business for about as long as it has been "mainstream" (since 1994 and am proud to say have worked with a team of great people responsible for many *firsts* on the internet in this part of the world) and have seen a lot of things come and go. Surprisingly though, I am now starting to see a lot of things come back.

The early internet was mostly about the potential of a loosely formed concept .... a persistent network of millions of connected computers sharing, linking and transmitting information. As we go into 2006, the internet today is now more about the fact - this stuff REALLY works and there have already been big changes in the way we work, recreate, communicate and socialise as a result.

When I started my internet services business in 1994, we thought is was going to be "just like TV" and before the first commercial Australian websites started to emerge, we had a vision of a million channels running through the network - in fact before there were HTML editors and while the decisions were being made to support BOTH the JPG and GIF image formats, there was a lot of discussion about how this content would look (and behave).

Our first foray into internet content was to use a couple of VERY expensive Silicon Graphics workstations. These were the ones which were used to "make dinosaurs" on Jurassic Park and since we thought that the internet would be made up of interactive "TV-like" content, these things seemed to be just the tools we needed..... I believe one of them now runs as a mail server of some sort and have to confess that I don't think we ever used the computers for much more than a bit of graphics rendering.

It seems though, that this early vision of the internet including lots of rich media content is now starting to come true. As I have mentioned in the past, we are doing a lot more work with embedded video these days as the content and the functionality integrate..... and about time. I had a chance to read up on some of the releases from Microsoft and Intel (and others) about their innovations for 2006 announced at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and the whole message this is year is about two things; the convergence of the content and more leverage from the network.

Some of these concepts aren't so new (if you read the Microsoft announcements about Microsoft Live you'll see old favourites such as customisable web portals and peer to peer web based communication reprised). So what's changed?

A lot!

The big changes are across the board; the internet is faster, the hardware and the OSes are purpose built for it, the applications work, the content is ready made, the security is MUCH better (with still a ways to go) and the commerce is starting to work as well. A lot of the building blocks we fudged around, made up or just went without a decade ago are now commercial grade and ready for business.

Most importantly though, I think WE have changed . Coming back to work for 2006, the team are already off and running on a range of interesting and innovative projects and many of them are about the things mentioned above. We are already doing some cool stuff with media-rich content, some AMAZING work for the mobile space (some stuff which is VERY high profile) and a lot of work on integrating commerce to this next wave of the internet.

I guess this sort of brings me to the end of this post, part of the benefit of being a bit of an "old man of the internet" (and it is all about the frame of reference right) I have the benefit of having seen some of whatis happening before. There are some real "gotchas" out there but if you work with the right team (and I do) then I think the opportunities are amazing .... and our clients are starting to see this too.

I love my job ...... 'cause we get to change the world.

If you can't stand the heat .....

2006-01-02T21:24:00.000+11:00

For me, every New Year starts with a New Year's Resolution (or more than one usually) and this year is the same. Once again I find myself promising that I will eat better, exercise more, focus on work / life balance and spend more time with friends and family. I have to balance these with the demands of a business which keeps getting busier and busier and the demands of living in a modern city (anyone else notice just how long it takes to get stuff done in Sydney?), but I am getting to an age now when these things have more meaning than they used to and maybe this year I will actually mean it .....

The New Year has certainly started with a BANG here in Australia and we celebrated(?) the start of the year with the HOTTEST January 1st on record for Sydney. The official temperature (recorded at Observatory Hill) was apparently 43.4 degrees celcius, but this only tells part of the story.

To the right I have included two photos (taken with my Sony Ericsson K750i - a generally average phone but with a pretty good camera) taken on the two occasions I bothered to venture out of the house. As you can see from the outside thermometer of the trusty low-speed cruise banana, not only was it HOT, but it was HOT ALL DAY. I can't remember a time when it was over 40 degrees at almost eight o'clock at night!

Thankfully, the weather returned to more sane levels today, following a very strong southerly which brought a dump of rain and took the sting out of the heat - today was 24 degrees - abnormally low for this time of the year. Pretty unusual weather patterns, and having seen that scientific masterpiece, The Day After Tomorrow, maybe it is time to pack my mukluks and suntan lotion and move to a cave somewhere........

So enough of the holiday banter .... after a very busy run up to the end of 2005, and an outstanding two day planning session with our Executive Management Team (what an impressive group of professionals they are!) we are ready to leap into 2006 and the exciting times ahead. I have high hopes for this year as the momentum in Online Services continues. Stay tuned for exciting activities from the Hyro team!

Happy New Year to all of our friends, their families and may your 2006 be marked with health, happiness and prosperity!

Not Getting it Right is... just so WRONG!

2005-12-02T13:20:00.000+11:00

A little delay in this week's blog as I have found myself dealing with a heavier than usual throng of customer related activity leading up to the Christmas break. As I have suspected in the last couple of quarters, the "starting gun for online services has definitely gone off" and our clients are starting work on some significant initiatives for 2005 - which is great for the business but is meaning some long nights for us.

All of this activity on the business front has meant that some of my personal administration activities have had to take a back-seat, but I did find some time to do some online shopping for Christmas over the last few late nights and I have to say that I have been *underwhelmed* by some of the experiences I have had.

Being a good Aussie boy, I have done my best to focus my online shopping to local companies, but gee, it has been tough!! I will tell you the story of the local online record store* with whom I tried to spend $300 online, only to have my order FAIL at various stages of the checkout process THREE TIMES (and I am much more persistent that most online shoppers). I didn't buy the DVDs I was looking for from them.

There was the online "department store" that offered me certain discounts based on certain combinations of products which again, when I went to the checkout, didn't flow through to the final shopping basket, and provided no mechanism to follow through on the offer. Again, no sale there.

There was the online store which waited until the last screen in the shopping process to tell me that three of the four things I wanted to buy were out of stock with a delay of 4 - 6 weeks (no good for Christmas).... again No Sale.

A pretty dismal experience on the main.

There were a couple of rays of sunshine. I have a real liking for the team at Mr Gadget, who I think are a smart bunch of guys who just sell great toys. Their order handling and customer service are both great and their catalogue is simple, clear and provides all the information you need! (I'll be spending more money with you guys!). And I liked the multi-path browsing implemented by www.toysandmore.com.au.

The sad thing for me has been the fact that despite some strong signs of amazing growth in the Online Services and eCommerce space, Australain Companies don't seem to be getting the message about the need to catch up with their international competitors. Despite the issues of international freight, currency conversion and delivery times, it was just easier for me to buy some of the things I wanted to buy online from international stores. That is about $400 which I spend off-shore this year that I REALLY wanted to spend at home.

For Australian retail businesses it really is time to get serious about the Online Services space (I know that I have been saying this since about 1994, but folks, that light at the end of the tunnel REALLY is a train! You need to get on board or get run over...). I saw some statistics this last weekend from a local company called DealsDirect.com.au. They have done some research which suggests that 2,300,000 Australians will shop online this Christmas and that they will buy around 9,000,000 items - that is a pretty serious market by anyone's account.

The critical mass for the online shoping market has been reached. The challenge for Australian businesses is that this market is squarely in the sights of your international competitors.

This market is different that the physical shopping environment and many retailers have struggled online because they try to repeat the physical model in the online space. The online consumer is sophisticated, has multiple "shopping personalities," is always looking for a deal, demands good service and is unforgiving .... they are always one click away from your competitors. You MUST learn to understand them and start to build relationships with them.

And you have to start doing this now.

The team I work with have been doing some very interesting work in optimising the online channels for our clients. A lot of this work in the past has been about the technical stability and capability of the platforms, and they have become pretty good at that. In the last couple of quarters, more customers are asking for help in improving the way customers use the Online Services we deliver and how to maximise the sales throughput. Some of this comes down to interface design and some of it to usability and information architecture - done well these activities will yield REAL results. We have one customer who exceeded their online sales targets to 30 June by more than 20% as a result of some of the work we have done.

This is a very big topic area and I could go on for hours about building online communities, the importance of peer referrals, the potential of rich-media content and more.... but I've got to get back to work.

In the meantime, when I do get back to my Christmas shopping, I will continue to try and Buy Aussie and Buy Online ...

*(you might remember records stores, it is what they were called before music came on CDs).... (come to think if it, you might remember CDS, it is how we used to buy music when we used to buy it an album at a time and before there were things called iPods and Googles and things....) - I am showing my age.... but I do love this stuff, because we get to change the world.....

TV is DEAD.... Long live TV!!!

2005-11-20T20:58:00.000+11:00

This week has seen a fair bit of press about some big changes coming down the line in TV, with technologies such as IPTV/DSL TV and Mobile TV now being seen by some commentators as being the next "disruptive" technologies.

These technologies provide the ability to deliver television-like content (broadcast video) directly to specialist video devices attached to IP Networks. Emerging devices such as the Apple Video IPod and the Sony PSP are portable video-players with the ability to connect to the internet (either directly or via a computer) and of course, most new 3G mobile phones have the ability to download and play video content on the run and already most of the local telcos are thinking about offering these services. Visit Telstra, Vodafone, Hutchinson/3 and Optus to see more about their respective offerings in these cases.

The attraction of these "on demand" TV services (I'll call it "ODTV") is that they break through some of the traditional conventions of TV. Instead of a TV network prescribing a timetable of programs and the user being beholden to watch the content at the prescribed time, the consumer can now search for and watch TV content as and when they wish to watch it. Sure there have been interim technologies designed to provide some flexibility (VCR, PVR/TIVO, and the like) but in all cases, the primary source of the content has been the TV network schedule. ODTV, of course, changes all this.

In most of the reading I have been able to do on ODTV in Australia, the shift to this model is being seen as an evolution in the traditional model. The press is a-buzz with stories of "content and distribution deals" as the owners of the "channels" (in this case the telcos) seek to acquire exclusive content as a means to enhance their value proposition to their customers. It seems to me that a lot of the talk right now is about "more of the same" as the current players rush to gain turf in a battle where the turf is not yet clearly laid out. The same names are doing deals about the same content and trying to perpetuate at least some variant on the same business models.... but is this really the future of ODTV?

As always, I get drawn to the impact of these changes on our clients - the big companies and government departments we are proud to provide our Online Services to.... and I have to say that I think that ODTV is going to be a very important change for them.

There are three reasons for this:

ODTV provides a mechanism for disintermediation of video-based content AWAY from the major networks. By definition, ODTV is accessible via ANY IP connection - we are now in a time where anyone can post TV like content on the internet and it can be reached by any consumer, anywhere.
ODTV is digital which means that we can augment video content with technology based services to link the offer to the means to fulfil the offer. A product placement within an ODTV show can be linked to the ability to try, learn more about or buy the product. Conversely, a request for more information about a product can be linked to an ODTV show which provides that information.
ODTV can be highly targeted. No longer must a marketer think about buying airtime in TV shows which may be attractive to a target market. They can now either buy advertising / placement within specialist ODTV shows directly suited to their market, or can even create ODTV content to reach their markets.

These three elements will re-shape the "turf" in the ODTV space. Significant owners of brands with a logical reason to create their own ODTV WILL take the initiative and seize the opportunity to create some brand leadership in this space. The brave ones will agressively protect their brands and will use this opportunity perhaps as a catalyst to changing elements of their marketing mix. Good ODTV content delivered directly to the right target markets will become VERY valuable.

Unfortunately, the timeframe between when this technology is available and when savvy marketers are going to be integrating it their advertising plans is not very long. This is an opportunity for NOW and we are working with our clients to help them understand and then take advantage of this exciting opportunity.

For our clients, I encourage you to start thinking about how ODTV is going to create opportunities for you to spread your message, reach your customers, provide improved service or deliver a government service. This IS one of those technological shifts which IS going to have a significant impact.

As I always say, "we have a good job, because we get to change the world..."

www.hyro.com

Customers are everywhere and anywhere......

2005-11-13T22:10:00.000+11:00

Every now and then you get the opportunity to see something which adjusts your perspectives on a couple of things. This weekend I saw two of them .... a hand-dryer in a men's bathroom and a VERY large aircraft... and surprisingly, these two things are linked!

The VERY large aircraft (shown to the right) is the Airbus A380 making its first trip to Australia and the (average quality) photo shows you the sheer SIZE of this thing. There are two points of reference in the photo ... the block of apartments underneath the aircraft and the small black dot to the left of the plane. That is the Learjet which was tailing the plane and taking the footage for the Qantas ads the A380 was here to shoot. As you may have gathered... this is one BIG aircraft.

In its recommended configuration, the A380 is capable of carrying 555 passengers up to 15,000 km. It is faster, quieter and uses less fuel than precedent aircraft. This is a machine designed to help people MOVE around the planet, quickly and comfortably.

People DO move about and travel is getting easier and easier (and cheaper) - I know since I do it a lot. All this travelling is having some impacts on the relationships we are developing as consumers and the business we are doing as professionals. When you add the increased capability the internet is bringing us in communications, services and utility, the reality is that the world is now a very different place. Smart, international businesses are grabbing hold of this opportunity and are reaching out to new customers, often in markets they have never actually set foot in!

I know from my own experience that the companies I am developing relationships with are distributed around the world. My music store is iStore, my preferred telco is Skype (now an eBay company) and my banking relationships are being pursued by international financial services groups like American Express and Citibank - BIG companies, trying to build a relationship with me, trying to make themselves stand out in the crowd, trying to get their message into my hands and then give me the capacity to act.

Which brings me to my hand dryer, found in the men's room of a Sydney cinema complex. This hand dryer has a video screen built into the front of it (a lot like the ones from Impressionaire in the US, but with a much better finish .... NOTE TO THE DISTRIBUTOR of the Product I saw here in Australia - I tried for 15 minutes on Google to find your product and gave up... give me a call, we can help you!!).

The idea is that when I dry my hands in the mens room, the unit will start a video stream which will run for the duration of the hand drying cycle. Apparently these things are connected to the internet and will change their content on pre-purchased advertising cycles. Not a bad idea right - get the message to me when I can't get away. ....

But is it such a good idea?

We have been doing some work for a couple of our clients about how customers are consuming their media and how this will impact consumption of their marketing messages. This is all about justifying the change in the budgets that are required by these clients to support the shift to more tangible and comprehensive online services strategies.

We are learning a lot from this process, but the thing which is resonating for me is the fact that our clients' customers are being bombarded by messages from all angles and from a wide variety of media. We are going to see more and more of this as the Online Services market continues to mature, as the mobile handsets get more capable, the TV/PC convergence continues and as specialist entertainment devices continue to evolve - as online services become ubiquitous.

The challenge for our clients is really now about understanding who their current and target customers are and then work out how they are going to get the right, effective message to those customers in a form and at a time that they can act on the offer being made.

The thing we aren't seeing though is much by way of the development of sophisticated online strategies which consider these new realities as the starting point for strategy development. Most of what we are seeing at the moment is the online strategy as an afterthough: streaming the same TV ad online..... having the above the line agency "cut a website to support the campaign"...... and in too many cases, Australian companies ignoring the Online Services space all together.

We are pleased to say that most of our clients "get it" and we ae working with them to turn this awareness into action. A lot of what we are doing these days is about gathering all of these perspectives, inputs and influences and using them as the starting point for a comprehensive online strategy. We are bringing the technology, the marketing and the business considerations together for the first time... and delivering real results.

I get a lot of satisfaction when I see our bold decision a year ago to evolve into a Pure Online Services Company turn into real business benefit for our clients. Our clients are changing how they spend their money, looking to make it more effective, more accountable - in short they are now working on REAL strategies to make the most of comprehensive, integrated Online Services .... and to make sure they keep their customers away from those pesky international competitors.

As I keep saying ... "we've got a good job 'cause we get to change the world...."

www.hyro.com

Blogging - Day 1....

2005-11-08T23:25:00.000+11:00

The motivation to start a blog has come from a recent article about Jonathan Schwartz - President & COO of Sun Microsystems. Mr Schwartz commented that in this day and age it is important for all of us with something to say, something to share or a vision we want to bring into reality, to get our ideas out there for others to share, challenge and help to evolve. By engaging others with our thoughts we give them substance. By allowing others to challenge our ideas we give them depth and by embracing the perspectives provided by others, we give our thoughts and ideas power - the power to become actions and to then deliver results. The task then is to break some (not unbreakable) old habits and to learn how to blog.

The biggest challenge for me is not to place my ideas out there for others to test and question (and please feel free to do so) but to make sure that the topics I choose are valid, relevant and worth the time I am asking you to invest in them.

Already the ideas are coming thick and fast, but rather than allow this blog to head down a particular path, I have decided that I am going to use it to capture my insights on something BIG... the BIG thing that is the broad, deep, subtle and stark change that is being driven by online services. These changes are starting to affect just about every aspect of our work, our lives and the way we interact. Even though this change has been gathering creeping momentum for a decade, the pace of change is now reaching a canter and in my mind will break into a gallop in the next year or two... things have changed. It is now time for business, government, people to catch up.

I am fortunate enough to work with a great bunch of people who make up what we are calling a Pure Online Services Company called Hyro. This is a team of people who are devising, implementing and driving part of this cantering change for our commercial and government clients. A lot of what I post here will be as a result of the work we do as a team and the things I see as a part of my job.

Forgive me if I get a little passionate as we go along, but I enjoy my job and the things we do .... after all, we get to change the world!

Your comments, thoughts and ideas are welcome... so please click Comments below.

http://www.hyro.com/